Today another old friend
passed further on
to a place
I don’t know
depths
I can’t fathom

despair over politics
lashing out in anger over
villains not real
slights he imagines
typing out his anger
regurgitating
nonsensical rumors
sharing humorless memes

making mean comments
about others
mostly those different
from himself

at least in perception

too many things are
taken personally
shared in anger
without direction
or basis in common
sense or decency

where he has gone is so far
removed from where
he has been, where
he intended to go
long ago

I cannot share his
fascination with
conspiracy theories
dislike
distrust
disgust
with so much
so any others

asking him
where
he is going
and why
trying to bring
him back to where
he once was
only drives him
deeper into

that place
those places

I am not a lifeguard
I cannot
save him,
do not
understand

fearing only that
like in our days in school
the crowd he is
typing with is
leading him to a bad place

knowing some of
the others in the crowd
I fear that
it is only a
matter of time
until I succumb to the
Facebook zombie
ten-point font apocalypse

– Mark L. Lucker

© 2016