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Paul Butters Sep 2020
In Cyberland, Microsoft is King
And we all pray to Google.
There is an Apple Resistance,
And Yahoo keeps on yelling,
But Microsoft is King.

Where did Jeeves go?
Remember him, you oldies?
A smiling Hitchcock fatty
You could ask things.

Remember Bebo and MySpace too.
But now we Snapchat through the day
And ask folk WhatsApp.
All in an Instagram.
(My Custom Dictionary
Is filling with new words).

So now it’s time for Tik Tok.
(See what I did there?)
That’s if the Americans allow it!
And much more no doubt.
Instagram Gratification
Flashing images
And clips.
No time for tedious talking
On landline phones
Or, heaven forbid,
Face to face conversation.

Writing – or rather typing – too is clipped
With lols & rofls & tbfs.
Lazy language
Tweets in textese
Fast and fleeting.
Facebook Funnies
With bouncy banter.

As a loyal subject of Cyberland
I do confess
To many an hour
Sifting through Facebook Memories
Even improving old posts
With coloured backgrounds
And sharper edits.
Addictive Internet indeed.

Yet
In years to come
Will we laugh loudly
At the mention of Google
And all the names I’ve said
Like we snigger at Bebo, MySpace
And Nokia Mobiles now?

The tsunami of technological change
Sweeps over our heads
Smashing the past:
Leading us
To who knows where.
For better or worse
Who can say?
Wherever we are going,
We are well on the way.

Paul Butters

© PB 17\9\2020.
By Google!!!
Jenie Sep 2020
Existing unrest exacerbated or
change in climate lowering the cloud cover
surrounding the mountain peaks For once
visible the centuries of suffering
now leading us into violence The
tables upturned by an invention spreading
like wildfire across dry meadows
or storm rivers under the seas
Bewildering Frankenstein monster
a stage for
the flowers of the brains to radiate
in strands of light above the lands
Connecting
discoveries and creations
Shared
passion and truth and
kindness valued in
a world in transit An echo
of upheavals from ninety five theses
when the rolling waves of knowledge open
for children to follow their drive
where it takes them
A transfer to learn
without belonging pains while
we downsize our upkeep
and upsize our bonds
our unfettered feet buried in the sand and our
heads held where the wind blows and the
sun shines We dance
We sing to a tune freed
on our way to be and to become
and together
in time
maybe
save what can be
                                     or end with beauty
Myself reading it on soundcloud, a first try despite my accent! https://soundcloud.com/jennifer-poussin/internet-hope-by-jenie-mp3

Ice melting, political upheavals, positives of social media, impact of printing press and Martin Luther's ninety five theses, knowledge available, alternative schooling, minimalism, mindfulness, music accessible. This is a kind of reverse follow up on 'Social media - A modern coliseum'
Paul Butters Sep 2020
The summer sun soars above the sultry sands…
Sorry your computer hit a problem
We will restart it for you
Error code – Gremlins from your latest Update.

Where was I?
The beach beams with delight…
You have Urgent Email
Your Paypal Account has been hacked
We need your bank details again
To protect you from villains.

Still on a standard gas rate?
You must shop around.
Use our fantastic cheap deal tracking
App.

Your internet provider technical department
Here.
Your computer is under attack
From Trojan Horse Maleficent-Ware.
You will lose internet connection in
Five hours unless…

We don’t provide cover for the drains
Under your house
Unless you take out
Our splendid insurance scheme.

Poetry Moderators here:
The word “Delight” is Not
Allowed here
As it has ****** Connotations
And your style breaches our
Community Rules.
Suggest instead:
The finely grained sandstone
Reflects Sol light
Making my mood
More adequate
By psychological standards.

Sorry your computer hit a problem.
I give up.

(NB No Moderators were hurt
During the typing of this poem,
As they usually act
After
It is posted).

Hehe.

Paul Butters

© PB 15\9\2020.
Grrrrrr
Ira Desmond Sep 2020
We know that to look now would set us ablaze,
the projectionist has loaded up the next reel,
but still we can’t seem to avert our gaze.

The clumsiest cinema still often sways.
The sound may be garbled, the edits piecemeal,
but we know that to look would still set us ablaze.

We question ourselves as the velvet drapes raise—
the playhouse itself thus begets our ordeal—
but still we can’t seem to avert our gaze.

The schoolmarms all warned us against such forays,
having seen how the real sinks into the surreal.
Yes, we know that to look now will set us ablaze.

Now the actors all shout patriotic clichés,
and we balk at the film’s jingo-populist zeal,
Even still, we can’t seem to avert our gaze.

Transfixed by tricolor and beset with malaise,
but what truths did Lot’s wife’s noncompliance reveal?
For we know that to look now will set us ablaze,
but still we can’t seem to avert our gaze.
Karijinbba Aug 2020
Pictures in the memory chip
woke me up from a long sleep
as amnesia's burried pain
unresolved takes flight

I woke up to see my beast
and did weep for way too long
I saw my beauty within silenced
my inner cores sacred seed
stumped.
my tree of life chopped
I weeped harder then ever then
I loved myself dearly so
and lived
waiting for another chance
to bloom again
blessed with marriage's vows
and many precious kids
I sided with beauty to comfort my beast within to give it the love attentive it needed emergently so.

I survived a loving Mother
badly trashed
envied discriminated birthing
was torturous in the hands of evil jealous sadistic Medeas.

they were the snakes
in everyones paradise
angry I had succeeded
in all they've failed
surviving their many attempts

I survived chasing few boys
chasing me only
with their lethal horn
they lacked courage
heart and brains
to chase me
with heart and soul
I sought for a best husband
that had long passed me by
leaving me behind
to brew longer into
my mangled core
into his aged best
wine reserve

He quickly Married brewing
another woman's wine tougher
oh the pain he caused me!
the daggars deeper dugged.

I roamed the internet
singles sites ever looking
to fill in the void in my kids
A father figure I only sought
for my cherished beloved
young kids
and for a lifetime I did look
asleep in my pain failing again,
in all the wrong places I did look.

Unaware that two bad as* boys
had came pre-paid by my ex or his
consort ** to trash me, to use me
to video tape me just enough and
to continue with a look alike
***** player on sale
ALL
just to trash me more in his eyes.
just to abandon and curse me.
May the internet singles web
of vipers the bad boys
the shadow people entities
no longer thrive.
To the bottom of the sea drown
take the hungry wolves down
an eye for an eye
justice I seek

Later on, the stranger
pre paid **** asked me
to not look back not to crash
Written in a photo post card
depicting two handsome
well dressed men flying
their private luxury airplane.

Same image my lover
rdd had sent in 75
two decades back!.

I found only heartache, misery
and pain by greedy wolves
posing as safe gentlemen
seeking a wife to be.

I took a lot more dangerous risks
many protective Moms would fret

my happier songs unplayed
remained in Hollywood
tower high subsidy abode.

Our dream and my legal identity
in his safety deposit box hid
a lifetime too long
for our harvest to yield it's fruit

My poet lover found me
available unmarried broke
on the singles adds web
again and again in secret
with hope I rejoiced.

he seemed *******
on our old script
he'd cursed me with
yielding no fruits

I lacked resource purse to run
to chase after him kids and all.

He must have given his gold seeds
allowing her generic matrix
edged in greed and jealousy
to grow'm to tie him down.

How's this story poem mine
similar to pictures on the web
photos on an ancient script?

My story poem pictures paint
"a thousand words.*
~~~~~~~~~~~
By: Karijinbba
Copy Rights
when a picture paints a thousand words
the story takes flight across the world it touches someone's heart.
Ces Jul 2020
Arched back
aching knees
pinpricks in my right leg
a thousand questions
running in my head
as I navigate this vast
spaciousness
of the Internet

A world where ideas
meet

and where people lose
themselves.
Paul J V Jul 2020
(Internet dating in the COVID lockdown)

Floating again in cyberspace,
hopping from cloud to cloud
hoping and hoping to face
her placed but not embraced

Head spinning, not acid spaced
nor aced in love misplaced,
smiles at angel eyes and face,
Silver *****, is it  legally laced?  

Left wondering when she might drop around
to unpack the cosmos or something profound,
or not profound, a quirky man, not unsound
but tossed on the life affirming shore of hope,
hope we might, in the line of mortal time elope.                          
                  ----------- O ----------
copyright 2020 Paul J. V
Nigdaw Jul 2020
this is what it’s come to
my wife is at college upstairs
sitting on the bed
with sixteen other people
virtually on her laptop
my daughter late for her lesson
at college
without the excuse of
missed buses or traffic
she got stuck in the kitchen
talking to her boyfriend
on WhatsApp
I’ve booked an appointment
at the doctors
on zoom to diagnose
a worrying mole
that’s giving me grief
and I might facetime my dad later
the only time I see him
for real nowadays
virtual love
virtual hugs
how do you date in a pandemic
I wonder
looking for someone to share
the end of days with
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