#smartphones
a ****** of Crows
gather Carpe Diem;
fluffing their throat feathers,
commiserating
the dead-weight
each unshod foot
bending the world below
the horde of cleft feet align
leaving no footprint behind ―
bowing the antique
frayed telephone wire
party-line swaying with the wind
over the washed out road;
at any moment
the land-line
might break
from the overload ―
downcast,
abandoned,
level with the ground ―
but no one
on earth
even cares ...
they've got
the whole world
in their palm
beneath the sky ―
and the crows
have wings
to fly away ...
harlon rivers
June 2018
Jun 23, 2018
Jun 23, 2018 at 11:54 AM UTC
We are all performing for each other, sneaking furtive looks at our Facebook while big brother watches every move, so we try to be smooth but we’re mostly fooling ourselves, pooling our wealth into the pockets of the few who can exploit our intuitions and inhibitions, guiding our volitions into the abyss, artificial intelligence manipulating with elegance, effortlessly evading our defenses, we’re stuck in psychological trenches down so deep and so dark we keep the lights on with the spark of imagining our face up on the screen, fame or infamy we’ll take whichever if we can live forever, so the birds of a feather flock together, tethering into groups of similarity, reflecting and retweeting to infinity, infinite me, define me and refine me through the digital lens, cleanse me of my subpar self, replace me with an avatar elf, help me be the best and arrest the theft of my soul, life’s terrible toll, free me from reality by letting the real me, the me I want to be, finally be seen. But this method is madness, a pathway to sadness and regret, hours stolen by scrolling through feeds, reality filtered and enhanced, living for likes and shares from people who may not even care, who are just staring at screens, afraid to go outside, to be alive, because reality is out of their control, but maybe unpredictability can set you free, anonymity unraveling the blindfold we hold over our eyes, deflating the ego that social media’s creating, when you look outside and see how big the world can really be, humility sets you free, feeling small in the best way, resting in each day as a part of the whole, no longer constructing a fake soul for a digital audience to see, instead you can finally be. Just be.
Aug 21, 2018
Aug 21, 2018 at 1:41 PM UTC
A constant emptiness
A need to want
The want to be needed
The need to be wanted
An oasis of nothingness
Grasping into open air
Everyone's on their own mission
Everyone's on their phone
How brilliantly terrible this is
Nobody has anything to say
In a restaurant everybody is looking one way ... down
Consumed by technology
My best friend
My best friend called Phone
To Love might make you complete
To be loved might make you whole
But who needs Love? Who cares?
As long as you have your little god to hold, right?
But in virtual reality the world can be cold
Spending all your time and energy
Like a battery run down you shall grow old
And don't count on anyone to hold!
Apr 30, 2018
Apr 30, 2018 at 8:25 AM UTC
We're forgetting the art of talking on the phone for hours and hours
It was better than texting because you could hear each other's voices
in near real time
without having to show oneself
Now you can hide your voice too
and overthink everything you say
It's texting or video chat
You're either the most remote
or as close as you can get
from a near human reaction
You're yourself after you think long and hard?
Not who you trained to be on impulse
Who trained me I wonder?
Me, commercials, parents, environment, or destiny
It's my goal to be a fractured self
that can immerse themselves in the entrails
of any one of these cubbyholes
Sep 16, 2017
Sep 16, 2017 at 11:26 AM UTC
where have conversations gone
long time passing
where have all our love words gone
long time ago
where have all our love words gone
mobiles took them, every one
when will we ever learn
I hope they will return
where have all the mobiles gone
long time passing
where have all the notebooks gone
long time ago
where have all the kindles gone
turned to tablets, every one
when will we ever learn
there will be no return
where have all the tablets gone
long time passing
where have all the smart phones gone
long time ago
where have all these gadgets gone
been recycled every one
never they will return
never they will return
where have all the users gone
long time passing
where have all the texters gone
long time ago
there lie all the facebooks slain
people try to speak again
when will we ever learn
hope they again can learn
Jan 21, 2017
Jan 21, 2017 at 3:55 PM UTC
In a world
Full of emojis and stickers,
We are no less than robots,
Expressing through dark screens..
Dec 3, 2016
Dec 3, 2016 at 3:59 AM UTC
Sittin' at your table,
...do you need a friend?
Jeremiad; -unhinged, unstable...
...media your sin.
Life's full of doubt.
What are you about?
Can't figure it out?
Shouldn't be without...
...you need a friend!
You lurch about and wonder why,
there's no one angry when you lie?
No enemies, no crowd, no scene.
No videos of you be-ing obscene.
Life's full of doubt.
What are you about?
Can't figure it out?
Shouldn't be without...
...you need a friend!
No wants, no worries, never try,
they'll be no one there when you die.
They'll be no one there when you die?
Light-box your friend, what are you, shy?
Life's full of doubt.
What are you about?
Can't figure it out?
Shouldn't be without...
...you need a friend!
Your phone responds, it talks to you.
Computer, T.V. -video games too.
One day you won't wake up in that tomb.
Having spent your whole life in a room.
Life's full of doubt.
What are you about?
Can't figure it out?
Shouldn't be without...
...you need a friend!
You need a friend.
Dec 1, 2016
Dec 1, 2016 at 7:10 PM UTC
funny about the walls we built
during hours spent digging up
crazy things we all felt
made up out of garbage.
why could nobody stop the war
when it climbed into their screens?
when everyone's favorite thing turned off
you could see the sky flickering for miles.
that day was my favourite day.
it stood still against the bright
blue backdrop and you could
hear the angels taking pictures
on their smartphones laughing
about how foolish we were
for believing in them.
back then I didn't know
how to look at all the walls
building up on the earth
or at the angels with smartphones.
but now it sorta feels like maybe
I've found a place to be near them
by trains in the union yard
in the streets walking slowly
and at home with my feet
burried underneath the ***** dishes
laughing about how foolish
I am to believe.
Jun 4, 2016
Jun 4, 2016 at 1:10 PM UTC
Tall, skinny, dark skin tanned by the sun
a football t-shirt with his school logo
the same high school I graduated from
walking ten feet in front of his mother
head down, nose in his smartphone
he slows his pace and meets up with her
in the Halloween section
I hear her ask,
"What are you going to do for red ribbon week?"
to which he rose his head for two seconds to reply with annoyed snarkiness,
"I don't know but I'm not wearing anything on my face.."
off he goes
nose in his phone
and suddenly my heart wrenched for her
for him
for that tone and the way he is missing out on this time with his Mom even though it seems so mundane to a teenage boy to grocery shop with his Mother
the saying is true
you won't appreciate your parents until it's too late and you're already grown and out of the house
I felt for myself
I'm having a son
and all I could think was
'what if one day that's me, watching my teenage son ignore me on his smartphone I pay way too much for so he can get on Facebook and waste his thoughts on brainwashing Internet trends, not caring to really talk to me anymore, or even care if I exist'
Sep 21, 2015
Sep 21, 2015 at 6:45 PM UTC
∴
A signifying monkey grunted
(keyboard-clever, morals stunted)
from his perch in a digital tree.
And next, did text (quite rapidly):
“Courtship rituals won’t suffice.
Face-to-face can’t break the ice.
Instagram me! Tweet me up . . .
friend me, like me, buttercup.
Sentences are so outmoded—
take too long to get decoded;
primate sexting hits me faster,
steers me towards your hot disaster.
Female monkeys: send an image.
(Ain’t got time for useless verbiage…)
if your snout just might unseat me
tweet me, greet me—don’t delete me.”
Then, unpeeling fresh banana,
searched his screen for Vox Humana. . .
Sep 11, 2015
Sep 11, 2015 at 10:07 PM UTC
We friended on Facebook,
Scrolled down our profile pages.
Lived together in a virtual world.
Our images and websites we shared
With Instagram incisiveness.
Meet all my friends.
Block any you do not like.
All busy we are, doing nothing.
Like if you agree.
Laptops were not enough.
Users subscribed to Smartphones,
Iphones, and God knows what.
Google them if you wish.
And if you like my words
Retweet them.
But beware!
I now use words like lol,
And even ***
Hehe.
Sometimes I multitask,
Flicking TV channels
Like a Subbuteo striker –
Gone virtual by now I guess.
Flicking and flipping while I scroll
My laptop page.
I make new tabs
As I message many friends:
Emoticons exploding
All along the way.
I’m Tivo-boxing clever
All the time,
King of my domain.
So get your VDU lit up
And monitor my words.
Download my thoughts
Into your memory banks.
I hope this all computes.
Paul Butters
Feb 5, 2015
Feb 5, 2015 at 4:10 PM UTC
I wake up every morning clutching my reserve
like you clutch your smartphone,
pleading with it in a whisper,
"Please don't die on me."
Jan 9, 2015
Jan 9, 2015 at 11:15 AM UTC
1
I see you, ya
I may be finger-punching
my smart phone at the dining table -
but darling, I see you, yeah
We’re seated at the table
you say something
but you think I’m listening to
Taylor Swift on Youtube
True - but hey,
I see ya, I hear you
I hear both of you
I multiply, I multi-task you see
2
I’m walking along the shops
I’m pushing the pram
with my baby inside
and I’m updating status
on the phone too
and getting that download –
but hey, stranger round the corner
I see you, ya, don't ya worry; yeah I see
my baby and I see you
stranger round the corner –
but hey, watch where your going
3
hey - I see you guys, I see you
no doubt all day I sit
in my couch tapping away
on my new supersize phone
but I’m smart hey – I see you guys
I see you my darling at the kitchen –
get me another coffee, will ya
And I see the kids glued to their sets
and little Toby our kitten
curled at my feet – why, thank you
for the coffee;
darling, can you
put a few cans of beer in the fridge –
see? I see ya, yeah…I see you all
Nov 4, 2014
Nov 4, 2014 at 11:28 PM UTC
I am now
attached at the thumbs
connected through the fingertips
it thinks for me
navigates for me
reads the minds of others to my face
it is a lens
through which I have access to an invisible world that no one can see
unless they have a prosthetic limb like me
Sep 10, 2014
Sep 10, 2014 at 11:36 PM UTC