We come fully assembled.

But others take us apart,
then leave us trying to gather the pieces
and fit them back together.
A daunting task
without tools or instructions.
Especially considering we didn't start
paying attention to
(or even noticing) the disassembly
until it was too late.

Sometimes they break us,
often deliberately,
so that the pieces will never again
fit the way they should.
And, of course, they "borrow" critical parts
that seldom get returned
(not in their original state, anyway).
So, in the meantime,
which ends up being most of the time,
we walk around incomplete
and not entirely functional.

Often, we disassemble ourselves.
Sometimes as an act of self-depreciation,
but usually to reconfigure the parts
as we think they should be,
only to find that the new design is flawed.
In this process, we often lose key pieces.
Or hide them away,
to eventually be forgotten.

Invariably, we recruit others to fix us,
forgetting (or choosing to ignore)
that this is how we probably came undone in the first place,
trusting their misrepresented skills
and experience.
Eventually, we give up
on letting them do the work,
and simply look at each other as collections of parts
we might salvage
for ourselves.

The greater our defects,
the more energy we consume.
Frequently, the only way to keep going
is to tap each other's power supplies
and siphon what we need.
Sometimes we do this in exchange for parts
or services
(repair or maintenance).
But most of us use
more energy than we generate,
leaving us all
perpetually drained.

Eventually,
we are subject to one of three fates:
We completely fall apart, seize up,
or simply run out of energy
(either because the supply is cut
or we're no longer able
to retain
a charge).