Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

That sound you can’t escape:

The scream of a new day

Plagued by worries

And fighting

And running

And hurries

And panic

Until you have to hit a little plastic box

In a vain attempt to make the screaming stop.

And your head hurts

And your socks don’t match

And the jeans you wanted are dirty

And you never finished that paper last night.

So you reach over to your phone,

That little buzzing box of noise.

There’s a message on the screen:

“Good morning, beautiful.”

And three notifications:

“Casey liked your post”,

“bagelo retweeted your photo”,

“itson314 reblogged your post”.

So you unlock it.

You open Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr,

MeetMe, Snapchat, anything your name is under.

It’s a flood of birthday wishes

And selfies and vines.

A soft snort of laughter

As you scroll down your feed.

A warm curling smile.

It was all that you need.

It’s the little things sometimes,

That outpace the bad.

The notifications and texts,

The reblogs and retweets,

The little reminders –

That’s all that we need.