What we’re here for
is death
Somebody accidentally
wound us up
(“I told you
to leave that alone”)
and we must
wait
to run down.

George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) American author [a.k.a. O. Neimand, Susan Doenim]

Poem (1972), “Things Go Better, Orbit 11 [ed. Damon Knight]
    (Source)

Collected in Effinger, Mixed Feelings (1974).