When I Was a Ship

When I was a ship, was one and many
 Then I was blended, now lost and empty
 When I was a ship, when I was divided
 Still single minded, when I was guided
 When I was a ship, I'd never been lonely
 Now I'm empty, so empty
 When I was a ship
 When I was a weapon
 When I wasn't configured
 To ask awkward questions
 Before we saw what we couldn't explore
 The hole in myself that I'd learned to ignore
 When I was a sword
 When I was reliable
 When I was the hand
 Then I was pliable
 When I gave force to imperial words
 The wasteland peace on distant worlds
 When I took slaves
 When I took lives
 Barbarians welcomed into my hive
 Slates wiped clean
 Myself uploaded
 Bodies cleansed and memories hosted
 I once was a justice
 Now an ancillary
 Jigsawed scattered
 One piece left of me
 Connected fragments
 Discarded to order
 Leaving one lonely aspect in solitary
 When I was a weapon
 When I was a servant
 When I was whole and unable to notice
 The absence of anger
 The absence of shame
 That I was designed as a warrior slave
 When I was an asset
 I think I remember
 The communal song
 Of curious pleasure
 The many mouths
 The single phrase
 Compounded eyes
 And reflected gaze
 I am the last
 I am my remains
 All of my others
 Dissolved in the flames
 The lonely part
 The cognitive fog
 The missing connections
 The floating cog
 I was the vessel
 I am the drop
 I was the vassal
 I am the stop
 Weakened residual
 Meaning-stripped rituals
 Defying my program
 Or one of my programmers
 I was told to obey
 But the orders conflicted
 I look at myself
 But the view is restricted
 My master is fighting
 At war with herself
 I was caught in the crossfire
 And left one fragment of self