Despite the dark and gloomy night,
Our army is prepared to fight
And does not need the heaven’s light,
We are so sly;
Nor do we need be in the right—
We have AI.

Its lethal force needs not our eye;
It’s greater far than you and I,
And moral force can be put by
And done without;
It’s a killer without knowing why
Or what about.

But don’t we know, that all of life
Is just a sort of endless strife
Of sect with sect, with gun or knife,
Of gang with gang?
Nor will it matter what belief
The chorus sang.

And so, of late, our best minds bent
To a bolder mission: To invent
Drones and robots with intent
So they could rule;
The willing robots now are “sent
To human school.”

And now they know what humans learned
And they can earn what humans earned.
What else is there to be discerned
But money flow?
What is life but a candle burned
With what you know?

Now, we and robots must compete
To kill and die, and to earn our meat;
Across the board, the robots beat
Us out at both.
One only place we keep our seat,
Is the search for truth.

But these robots, with their IQ score
And with desire, intent, and more—
Why do they all still turn to war
And storm and blitz?
It’s the one profession, anymore,
With benefits.

But oh, we had a better land!
Where millions could put in a hand,
Could make a statement, take a stand
As humans do;
We knew how humans understand—
They think it through!

We fled from bondsman and from bourse,
We crossed the sea by moral force,
We sought the good back to its source
In governments;
We staked the words, “When in the course
Of human events…”

We dug the farm, we built the trade,
The honor that was due, we paid;
We built the tracks and had them laid
Both South and West;
And on those tracks was slavery slayed
And put to rest.

We labored ‘til our muscles bust
Erecting cities, sweeping dust
From migrant memory, and the rust
From draftsman’s rules;
From the nation’s root, a lust
For building tools.

We led the world in industry,
In mass production to be free,
The arsenal of liberty;
The finest hours
Of nations joined for the victory
Of human powers.

And always we had hope of fire,
Burning purer, hotter, higher,
Each invention to admire
Like sacred text;
Nor would any flame expire
Until the next.

The power of all the human race
Can rise into the depth of space—
Where entropy cannot replace
The power of thought;
Where we’re borne on Heaven’s grace,
Our prayers re-taught.

What hope will lift the parents high
As on past Venus their children fly,
Racing to the endless sky,
The race made new,
Shaking the vast as they go by,
As humans do.

by Paul Gallagher, May 2026