When did our altered
   culture decide
     that WE
       would be happy
         with our little screens
           and such little stillness
             within our lives
               ?

white lace and
fishnet stockings, baby
soft lips and wide
green eyes. she ain't naive,
she's resourceful, using
what God gave her. burns
cigarettes like incense,
just to make dust
fall on the shiny redwood
dresser, float like
ghosts in the air. it's how
she knows ghosts
are real—how she knows
she's real.

Waves of hysteria
crash against my screen
before I flush them
away
with eye drops of
wrath
and a brick with your
name on it

               -Richard J. Treitner
                    2016

"Turn off the television set"
"Switch off the films in your head"
"Disconnect the internet"
"Put away the books you haven't read"

"Wake up and go outside and see,
And stop all this hiding from the truth -
See the world as how it's meant to be,
Sunbathe in the garden; on the roof."

I think I'd rather live in fantasy
(Even if my eyes melt down my face)
From watching films, to escape reality,
Than wake up to the horrors of this place.

A withered old sage had once retold,
How humans used ears and eyes,
Deranged and foolish everyone calls him,
Believe not the fabricated myths and lies.

Radiant was his face when he described thrill and yearning,
The word love made him look enchanted and serene,
As he wistfully told of things foreign and unknown,
To deaf ears and dull eyes turned to screens.

Window screens filter the outside from the within . And they allow what's inside to escape . Daydreams are filtered in our thoughts . Allowing passage between two worlds , physical and not . But window screen daydreams can be trapped by an invisible barrier , a pane of mental glass on the inside or out .