You're Strange

It walks, it talks, it grins, it laughs.
It sings, it taunts, it cries, it sleeps.

But these are all just acts, subtle pulls of the puppeteers strings.
When one by one those tethers are cut,
The limbs come loose, and all the thoughts come undone.
It stares blankly, eyes left looking up at the sky.
Involuntarily paralyzed, left adrift in the rippling waves of time.
Cast adrift in the past, left churning over the waterfall of the black abyss;
The future.

Saw blades whine and the horrified screams waft lazily over. Slowly, slowly,
the lines grow taught.
First eyes, then hands, then feet.
A word is uttered, followed by another, and another.

Animation is returned and it stands, shakily at first.
Then more steady.

It is human, but not humane.
It hides, or doesn't exist.
Nobody knows. All that matters is the strings,
not what they're attached to.
Pretty noises and nice gestures and self-control.
Contrasted to silence and immobility.
Hesitation.