NewPoetryCollective: Post-Social Media Poem

Post-social media poem

A nuke went off the profit-generating corporate grid;

Only random characters flickering on the 2-inch screen;

Text is garbled and sent in undetectable bottles;

Blank eyes from a thousand cases who can’t read a book;

Unchained from the porous net, no more need to be linked or in;

Meaningless messages fail to reach anyone instantly;

So you can leave the “i” of a phone @ home, become a “me”;

Find a street sign with mileage info in an anonymous suburb;

Learn to navigate the distance, read a compass like the ancients did;

Experience the dirt road off the proverbial beaten track;

Arrive expectant at the suddenly revived village square;

Settle in and reach, smell the acid-free rain;

Hear laughter of kids without a controller;

Value, treasure, share, recharge:

Before the power comes back on.

Poem © 2012 by Glenn Brigaldino

Glenn Brigaldino is an independent political analyst living above the 49th parallel. He was a contributor to the 2002-2005 Newtopia Magazine venture and remains loosely affiliated with the new project.

In the early 1980s he was an active member in the German Green party, until it became absorbed in the political mainstream. As a specialist in international cooperation, he has worked for aid and relief organizations in Africa, Europe and elsewhere.