Behind a Screen of Blue
Location
I blink tiredly, my head pounding
an absurdly bright monitor flickers before me
Another night of living in a world fantasy
in a virtual realm of limitless possibility
All of it within the tap of a key
the pressing of a button
the click of a mouse
Look away to a room
bathed in the filtered sunlight
of a Saturday morning
Wrappers litter the floor
the air smells of something strange
something. . . rotting perhaps?
I Log in
Dive in
to a world unfamiliar
to a place so familiar
Where pixelated facade protects my face
My friends from school replaced with a computer screen
The hearty laughter of others
heard only through the fuzzy filter of an online call
Suddenly, the laptop closes
the smartphone locks
Turning, I reach for them
BRB
My tendrils of influence stripped from me
the power button not only shuts off my device
it shuts off my life
all of it gone as the screen dims to black.
I see others from afar
and quietly try to play solitaire
only to find I don’t know how to set up the game
I look for a monitor, I need to Google it
I race to my desk and open my laptop
My tendrils grow back
A breath of stale air
A sip of lukewarm soda
The living of a real life is unnecessary
Who needs it when I can
do what I cannot when I’m
AFK?