Death and Social Media

My wall is filled with ghosts.

When I was a girl, bad news

came to us in person.

Someone would drive out

in the snow or rain to knock

on your door; someone picked

up the phone and called you.

You all searched for photos,

and you made a memorial

in someone’s house

that you all visited.

Now we get death notices

when we check on someone

we have not seen post in a while;

or we see a post of a road accident

of our lovers in a group whose

membership we share.

Nobody thinks to call you

anymore; and you do not

travel to funerals and memorials.

 

But then come the reminders-

their faces haunt our feeds,

their birthdays, the things

they wrote to cheer you up

on a bad day. The hints about

their fights with demons, that

even in this age of connection,

we all missed until after the fact.

Does anyone

ever really die anymore? We

have been looking for the key

to immortality in all the wrong

places. It is not a miracle injection,

it is seeing the lying smiling faces

of my friends and family-

a sketch living as a ghost haunting

my memories, years after

their body moved on.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

writing exercise homework for our poetry club, on the theme "Social Networks."

Written today for Pam, Mark, John, Paul, Beverly, Aroldo, Michael, Carlos, Sue, Ginny, Todd, Laury, Barbara, and Laura. Translated from my original in Spanish.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Writing like this is part of a river of lessons you've laid for readers for as long as I recall, R. In this you remember what seemed right at the time but now seems so inadequate. so instant. I truly recall similar, a tutting and crying, recalling and sharing when people were missing from wherever, and then confirmed as gone. It's how it was, hands-held, arms hugging somewhere, somehow making contact.

Through the second long but utterly sincere part, life speeds along, we share the dark and down at times, surrounded too often byy negatives. Where were giggles and doing the naughtiest sharing - it's become a time when contact is brief or done via that instant faceless place where emotions can be faded out or deleted. Poof!" and gone... ' in a cloud of a sketch living as a ghost haunting my memories.' No chance to whisper in a fragile ear, 'I love you, I'll miss you.' Sounds that mean more than social media could ever, ever replicate . Don't know why but am trying to hum the tune of our little mum's favourite song, September Song'

Your writing always inspires me to think deeper and try harder.

[HadesRising]

Interesting piece of poetry. Well done.

[Dane Osborne]

Life is finite and you never get to know what it is until after it's already over. Dissociation is a defense mechanism where we find our freedom through numbness and distance. Doctors become desensitized to their patients suffering commonly due to reasons both professional and personal.....,people mimic the same behavior in their day to day routinesi n ways they don't ever realize.

This is a wonderful and intelligently written poem. I'm glad I stopped by :)

[Travis Gibson (poetic h..]

"In the lying smiling faces of my family and friends," this piece really got to me, especially that line. I lost my mother a few years ago now, and I literally had to avoid all of social media, at least until I was able to face seeing her image. This really has illuminated the bits of peace and acceptance I have now, thank you... Excellent piece!

[Kay Salisu Titilola]

Hmm... That is just it.
You've written a poem that is so phenomenal.