You taught me things I never wanted to know.
You made me so happy, yet so sad.
You filled me with sorrow and taught me there was no hope,
Then you gave me something to laugh at so I'd forget about it,
About everything.
Every word I read, every breathe I took with you, was a gift and a curse.
You've torn me down and built me back up so many times I've lost count.

Yet I still love you, Oh how I love you.
Without you I am lost,
No followers, no one to talk to when I'm lonely,
No one to cheer me up when I'm sad.
Just an empty, gaping hole inside of me where you used to be.

I hate you for it,
How dependent I am, how I can't see the good in the world,
How you make me procrastinate and how you make me lose my friends.
I hate you, because I can't function without you.

So today I'll say NO, and tomorrow I'll say YES.
But in my heart you'll always be a bittersweet thing.
So many good memories, and an equal amount of bad,
Something to love that makes me sad.
Something to hate cause I didn't want to know.
Somethings were never meant to be shown.

Dem phones, dem phones, dem iPhones,
Dem phones, dem phones, dem iPhones,
Dem phones, dem phones, dem iPhones,
Now praise the Lord for the Web.

The Apple phone’s connected to the Vodaphone,
And the Vodaphone’s connected to the Google Zone,
The Google Zone’s connected to the Web Zone,
Oh hear the Lord of the Word.

Well the phone’s connected to a browser
And it fits very neatly in your trouser.
The browser connects you to the Internet
Faster than the fastest speed-jet,
Just the place for a quick bet.
Oh hear the Lord of the Word.

It might get you onto Facebook
Or teach you how to be good cook
Find you some ladies for a good…
Time.

Now Praise the Lord of The Word.

Paul Butters

I always go incognito
But I still get scared though
That someone would creep behind
And then they would suddenly find
The things I wouldn't dare
It's too much for them to bear
The reality of this internet-freak
She wouldn't dare speak
As she is ashamed
For the lewd stuff that can be named

Here is the ballad of Web MD,
Self-diagnosing terminal maladies,
My fatal afflictions linger on,
I'm buying more medical texts from Fishpond.

Let's do our own diagnosis,
Teach yourself self-hypnosis,
My fatal afflictions linger on,
I'm buying more medical texts from Fishpond.

Let's sing our ballad of  MD,
Sure we've got terminal maladies,
My fatal afflictions linger on,
I'm buying more medical texts from Fishpond.

That was the ballad of Web MD,
What are today's self-diagnosis,
My fatal afflictions linger on,
I'm buying more medical texts from Fishpond.

The hostile computer file
Was in an old style
That slipped and floated
In hotter water.

Coal dust
+
asbestos
+
Silicone
pull J U G U L A R  
straighten larynx
Plug my cord in.
Run:
digitized opalescent sky
Terminate process
heart exe. Cannot be found
reboot reboot reboot
sign up to facebook
sign up to dumb luck
sign up and sign off
C:/prey
C:/pray
C:/pray

that I don’t get swallowed
by this machine
that I don’t get swallowed
by this 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101

******* internet,
Stop picking roses and asking me to ignore the thorns,
Cut off their heads,
Give me the thorns,
I don’t need to make myself smell sweet for you,
Empty head,
Brain dead,
Fill it up with faults in our stars and the perks of being a wallflower,
We all know ants can carry away common sense,
If there are enough of the *******,
But don’t peg me as a simpering idiot,
Sitting in the dark waiting for poetry to illuminate demise,
I’m not black and white, tears rolling, all alone,
Go **** your rusty razors,
I don’t need anyone to kiss my scars,
I am forty thousand thunderstorms,
I destroy what I want and I will always make you run for cover,
I will use all my energy to summon starving rain,
Just to make everything feel normal,
I have been my own casualty and I have been my own champion,
But victim isn’t in my vocabulary,
I never wrote wailings on white,
Or measured my problems in aesthetics and ‘reblogs’,
You are not ‘beautifully broken’,
Love is not masked by exquisite pain,
And I don’t believe in the charms of your never ending night,
Because the sun always rises,
And I would rather let it burn me up,
Then lurk in the shadows like you.

I look online
at this virtual world
we all live in today.
And I find a hidden war
that never seems to end.
Cruel words hidden as bombs.
Barbaric comments hidden as guns.
As I walk through this torn battlefield,
with blood spilled everywhere,
I find not a single page
with peace instead of war.
People seem to become so mean
just because it isn't face to face.
People turn into monsters,
monsters that bite and ****.
It's like people seem to think
their words have no impact,
their message is just a joke.
But this war on the Internet
is more real than before.
There are crying people,
bullied people,
who catch these bullets
that people have sent,
and decide that maybe life isn't worth living anymore.
There are wounded people,
wanting for just some love,
only to find hate and anger
written wherever they go
in this Internet war today.
This war may be virtual,
but it's real and alive
even as we speak.
Some people wonder why
suicides are so often.
Some people wonder why
teens are becoming so depressed.
All they have to do is open
their computer and their minds
to this Internet war we have today.

I will myself alive through these network pages
and even as the sun rises above, I never see it.
I am instead illuminated from the light
of this mirror glass screen
Where pictures form into pixelated sentences
And words are a slanted language, creating different meanings

In this place: population 7 billion
though I never see their faces
Instead shrouded behind the mystery
of strange, colloquial phrases.