The New Coward(s)
(This post is dedicated to M. Vasquez)
And on the last night of the world, the only star left in the quiet, dark sky, whispered to The New Coward’s below, “Look, look up, look up! You can do it, you can do it—you- can- do- it. I know you can, I know you can, I- know- you -can…”
* * * *
They are The Meta Communicators of our New World. The Hider’s of life… (and of love.) They breed in Isolation; afraid of real communication. They thrive on C h i p s & get Fat on Bytes. This is the only way They know how to feel. (or not) They hurt?/They love/? They live?/ through The heart-less cellular world. (They are The C o w a r d s we never really see…) The New Human hiding behind T e c h n o l o g y. They forward and copy their Hearts/Their words/ Their wounds (and too Their pain…) Like a technological game, they cry and laugh through secondary communication. but Their tears? They-are-not(!) R e a l. The loneliness is dig-ital, yet palpable. It is cold, but immediate. (Shocking to the core, how could this be? Life is now a cyber community…) The channel from which it is received does not breathe. Why does it feel so damn sexy? (but disappointing) Why does it feel so damn Sad?
Even if the emoticon is: Glad. It-never-sat-tis-fies… A moment; a high, only too soon ends in A textual ‘good-bye’… But the good-bye doesn’t even come to you in the decency of any real reply. You look. You stare. You gaze (Into-this Pixel Maze.) The screen is blank and so is the heart, for nothing alive can come through a device… And you pay such a high price to protect a thing that gives you fantasy but No reality. The Intimacy is Trickery. The Trickery is technology. The dis-guise is heartless because They (These Cowards) think they feel some-thing (but that something is life-less) Yet they stay and seduce the Viewer into Believing that They are—Alive, but They are not, for their messages are not tangible And without the light to see? Where then would The Cyber Coward be? A photograph, a word keyed into a device makes not for (a relationship)------will never -su-ffice…Yet, the ‘seduction’ is Safe. The smiles behind the battery operated stay—mesmerized and glued to who? Emoticon-You? It is our brain that is clawing for the beating of our hearts To reach out, to touch that/whom (which) Lurks and hides behind the life-less device which has become all-of-our- Vice… The fingers; the voice—beckons and-tries-to-cry through to the touch screen but it can’t (beat) life back at us, yet It seduces us with ideas of Alive: The love is: text-u-al. or: text-you-All. What is this new feel-ing (or not!)?Emotion absence of prosody--secondary communication is versification(only with the imagination.) Sounds real. Reads real… but-it-is-not… Are we old or are we young? (we are both.) why is it acceptable-to-just-not-reply? Why have we resorted to open ended messages or technological good-byes? Digital information and cyber-communication Cellular love(?) and digital cries…
* Touch-screen tears*
* Cracked glass fears*
(Betrayal of the worse kind-)
The “No-real-Thing”= technology. Makes us happy? makes us sad? Makes us---fucking feel (radically mad?) And no-thing really ---Shhh, shhh, shhh. Brightness is fading. Mute is on. Soon Our World as-we- know-It-will- be- All—Gone. The screen is black. The Coward’s head faced down.(still) The world is Lone-ly. No one thinks to look up at the star(s) any-more…(Ooooopss gotta go --Battery is way too low…) Xxoo :(