We live in a society that is so plugged in. The internet, media, and capitalism can be your best friend and your worst enemy. Recently a zoom bomber entered our online writing group with hateful messages of misogyny and racism. Flipping on the news recently, Tyre Nichols had left my with thoughts of do I force myself to watch a man beaten to death on the television just because the media says so? So many messages of hatred inducing fear and hopelessness… but then peppered with messages of what we should consume and appear as. Overwhelmed… I turned to what I know. That is art and writing.

Media Mayhem

flash 

Bait

Click

Media

Monstrosities of all humankind

15 minutes of fame

Selling your soul for your name

Speculum of the eyes

Media … off guard

By force

Click

Bait

Hook 

Line 

And 

Sinker

Down down down we all go

Suffocating in whatever woes the media throws. 

Click 

Bait

Post 

Dopamine HIT! 

Surface layer

Material matters

Atom BOMB!

Flash!

Demolition derby of the mind

POST!

Quick – dopamine HIT

Like

Like 

Like

Like

Like

Primitive minds 

The shallow forms of the kind

Destruction of the psyche

Click 

Bait 

POST!

Bad man

Kill

KILL

We want justice

We want peace

Annihilation of hope

Click 

Bait

Post!

Hook

Line 

Excavating what is left

What is left? 

Fear, Hate, and Injustice waltz around the ballroom with Puppets, Pantomimes and Ventriloquists.

Click

Bait!

POST! 

Flash

Bang

High

Low

A blow

to the psyche

Thinner here

Plumper there

Lighter here

Darker there

Eat this

Not that

Look at this

Not at that

Click 

Bait

POST! 

Flash

Bang

Dopamine HIT

Buy

Capitalism

Buy!

    Buy! 

BUY! 

Round and round on the wheel you go

Where you’ll land 

nobody knows

Click 

Bait

POST! 

Flash

Artificial life implosion!

A glimpse of reality

Stop!

Wake UP! 

Turn 

It 

Off. 

Tune in…

Tune out!

K.K. Powell