Dark Web

These days we carry the world in our pocket,
shrink-wrapped to fit a six-inch frame.
Always-On, 4G, 5G, swiping algorithmically
through time and space,
status updates, viral vids and memes
don’t mean a thing.
We’re infobese, caught in the jaws
of the infobeast that craves
more more more
of the time we just don’t have.

The clock tik-toks as you Instagram your lunch,
fifteen minutes of Facebook fame a day,
more platforms than a train station,
a voice and a crowd for all.
Look at me. Here I am. I exist. Don’t you see?
Or,
Come with me,
I have the answer you seek.

It could be beautiful.
A universal cyberconscious Hive Mind,
One world, one love, one us. Right?

But no.

We’re atomised, polarised, hyperfuckingnormalised,
desensitized to any kind of horror
we can imagine and many kinds we can’t,
a twenty four hour atrocity exhibition
not all want to watch but none can turn off.

Dark Web

Incel echo chamber, /b/tards
spewing bile for lols,
the hate that feeds upon itself
and thus grows ever stronger.

Constant hum of white noise static,
unfiltered data junk dumped direct
into brains synaptically attuned to
the age of disinformation,
Fake News, alt-facts, obfuscation,
and all the while the demented chorus clamours
follow me, follow me,
follow me…