We used to sit around campfires
Watching shadows flicker
Listening to stories
Passed down from generation to generation
Tales of creation
Tales of battles won
Of friendship and adventures
Of loves found and lost and found again

Now we read 240 character tweets
Of nothing but biased opinion
On complex topics
Attention spans too short for nuance

Bypass well-written articles
For attention-grabbing headlines
Hours spent scrolling…

Scrolling…

Scrolling…

Scrolling…

Through comments section
In search of those who think the same
Something to disagree with
Something that outrages

Something…

Something to fill the void once occupied by wonder
By Awe and appreciation
Not shock and depreciation

We used to stand carving heiroglyphics by torch light
Preserving ancient wisdom
Mysteries of the afterlife
Of medicine
Of consciousness
Of goddesses and gods and mystical technologies

Now we sit
Around processed food dinner table
Staring into flickering screens
Faces expressionless
Addicted to microdosed dopamine
Every ‘like’ a little hit
Every ‘share’ a substitute for interaction

We once told stories
Carved them in stone
Painstakingly scribed them in sacred ink
Into hand-bound books
Pages intricately stiched into leather covers

And now
We’re writing poems
With fucking emojis

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