Life.

Does it really matter that if in some zombie like state,

someone liked your status?

We don’t discuss like the geniuses of the past anymore,

we clutch our keyboards and hide blue faced behind screens.

We filter what we want people to see.

When’s the last time we had a real conversation?

When we weren’t thinking about the text, snap, like,

Tweet, or follow we just got. When our hands didn’t

hover anxiously over our pockets as if by some miracle

that one ‘fine’ implied all that we wanted it to.

Have we forgotten how to talk to the people in the room?

We’ve become slaves to ourselves, in an effort to connect with

each other, we’ve connected to the outlets in walls.

 God forbid your phone run out of juice…

Because this cord connects you to the outside world,

As if it were your mother’s umbilical cord,

as if your phone granted you life.

When did we have to start proving ourselves?

My kid is the cutest, look at my sandwich, I put on my makeup today…

When did affirmation become an addiction?

As if 3,000 likes could really replace the satisfaction of placing a pair of tube socks

into the hands of a homeless woman and watching her face light up.

Because just for that moment, her burden was lifted just a little. 

But wait, I’ve forgotten, you’ve chosen to live between the replies.

Halting me, with your finger, to tell me to wait a minute while

you respond to someone who isn’t here.

You’ve resigned yourself to a text bubble that reads, (…)

Just waiting for a reply. Waiting to live until you have wifi.

How many minutes, hours, days, years have you swiped away?

How many opportunities in our real lives have we scrolled past…

In the anticipation of one lousy ‘like’?