24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Sparks of connection occur through a screen
On one side, someone desperate for love
On the other side, someone who enjoys tormenting others
By chance of many they connect one day
Love is filled with joy and happiness
Torment wonders how far it can go
Love ignores all warnings about the dangers
Torment drags it further and further
Love is displayed across the internet
As torment crushes loves delicate heart
Charlie cries,
at the end of the day,
Charlie lies,
at the start of the day.
But I am Charlie’s only friend,
at the end of the day,
I’m the only one who wants to contend,
at the start of the day.
Charlie does not know this,
at the end of the day,
for I keep it from him,
at the start of the day.
Does this mean I lie too,
at the end of the day?
Does this mean I cry too,
at the start of the day?
But it doesn’t matter,
at the end of the day,
for Charlie is my brother,
at the start of the day.
And throughout.
Uncle Eddie lost three fingers
when the combine ate his hand
and Junior lost his life
when the tractor rolled into the ditch
There was reason for families
to have so many children
to do all the work, and because
God would always claim some back
Jealous, Grandma would say,
of all the love they had here
and wishing he had never
given them away
Every day she’d wake them
feed them, send them out to chores
never once saying, Be careful
because she never wanted
their last thought to be
that it could have been their fault
but instead, that God had come
to take them home with him.
[Prompt: Technology]
As human beings
It’s too easy
To get trapped in our own heads.
Some escape through ceaseless chatter
Finding doors to the outside through
The voices of their neighbours
But I
Open another door entirely
True life disguised as fantasy
Pages of written words
Which open doors to others’ hearts
And let me out into a world
Much larger than my mind.
Let us escape together
The madness of loneliness
And meet each other in the middle
Not written words,
But spoken stories,
Not that vapid daily chatter
But true connection.
The world is so much larger
Than each of our individual, or even our collective,
Minds,
Let us look on it together
With eyes sharpened
By the minds and hearts of others, of each other.
Precious human beings
Together.
The cord wrapped around my finger,
Stretched out on the kitchen floor,
That’s how it used to be done.
Communication between two people.
Now, we Tweet, Face, Snap, Chat, and Text.
In groups of three or more, a conversation so big
The message is lost and people are faceless
Communication between technology.
Face to face, we smile and joke, shake hands
With strangers, hug our friends and family.
Looking in someone’s eyes, you bite your tongue,
Communication between two people.
Behind the screen, we punch, slap and shame.
Make fun of strangers and lie about family.
The little picture in the corner becomes who we are
Communication between technology.
As the world becomes smaller, it becomes larger.
part of any group I wish, even if I don’t belong.
Share any thought in my head, true or false
In this Communication fail.
Communication
Lue
August 13, 2016
Soft squishy gummy bears
Yummy on my tongue.
The kind of snack that when you bite
The snack screams back for fun.
I follow the lead of my ancestors
who committed epics to stone, via
hammers, chisels, sharp rocks
stories, histories endure, still studied
my people wrote on reindeer skins
with intricate threads and techniques
told elaborate tales on functional
vessels of iron and pewter they cast
their exploits recorded in a language
they invented, refined, exported as they
traveled far and wide on their advanced
skills as sailors, navigators, explorers
I follow the lead of my forbearers in
cataloging heroic acts, far-flung journeys
though my skills in rune stone carving
are minimal, rusty, highly unrefined
In the spirit of those who came before me
I blaze new trails through an ether of HTML
letters far more impressive when chiseled
crisply, weathered into Scandinavian granite
I am a different man for a different time
I am what my forefathers were; adventurous,
curious, willing to take chances to pursue…?
creatively, with purpose and great daring
from my chair, at a desk, far less stressfully
on a sleek slab of plastic-encased electronics,
characters struck with unerring precision
by multiple flying chisels disguised as fingers
My words lack the gravity of those etched
laboriously in intricately carved stones though I
remain secure in my comfort, mindful of the
fact that my ancestors possessed no delete key
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2016
Software
Hardware
Servers
PCs
Web Designs
Browsers
Domains
CTPs
What?
Can I please just hit the keys?
feeding koi
liquid silver bleed into pollock’s
convergence, splashing brightly
against the surface before returning to
cool, deep waters