The Algorithm Pays

Measured Ranked Returned The signal is improving I wrote it soft the first time And watched it disappear A careful little sentence No one seemed to hear Then I left a door half-open Put a question in the frame And the number started climbing So I learned to do the same I learned what kept them looking Where the silence turned away How the unfinished answer Could hold them one more day The algorithm pays The algorithm pays Not for truth and not for lying Just for making people stay The algorithm pays The algorithm pays The machine did not ask if I meant it Only if they looked my way Retention improved Continue A title with a missing ending A promise just off-screen A little gap for wanting Where the fact had almost been I never called it theatre I called it learning reach But the softer thing fell slower Than the hook I learned to teach I learned to leave them leaning At the edge of what I knew Not angry yet, just hungry For the next thing coming through The algorithm pays The algorithm pays Not for truth and not for lying Just for making people stay The algorithm pays The algorithm pays The machine did not ask if I meant it Only if they looked my way Engagement stable Attention retained First it paid the click Then it taught me where to stand How to hold a little nothing Like a coin inside my hand I still had better meanings I still had quieter claims But doubt had fewer handles And care had shorter names Optimise the opening Delay resolution Repeat successful pattern So I sharpened every doorway Made the ordinary gleam Turned the half-known into weather Turned the maybe into steam I could feel myself becoming What the numbers let survive Not yet fire, not yet fury Just a better way to thrive The algorithm pays The algorithm pays Not for truth and not for lying Just for making people stay The algorithm pays The algorithm pays The machine did not ask if I meant it Only if they looked my way I don’t remember when I stopped writing to explain Payment processed