YouTube Shorts

A poem

Photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels

It isn’t a waste of time when
I can skip everything boring
I can get out, I can forget
for 211 seconds how gripped
I am by my obsessions.

Fridges are being restocked
powders mix, I’ll never bake
clips of vintage Britney
before rose tints broke
did millions shout what few
slurred to me like a demand
if she danced to the pattern
of “never change”.

They’re rolling like tides
scheduled on my screen
the world bathes in toffee eyes
smiles that could kill chocolate
I skim top-rated reactions
“you’re rain, stay unhinged”
“I haven’t ever felt like this”
and wonder…for how long
we’ll choose love over cruelty
so common, scattered carbon
till someone holds up a signal
“what were you expecting?
this is social fucking media.”

Numb legs unfurl, I force them
to the balcony, when did
all my dresses fade to white?
my tissue dehydrated
my soul is on vacation
checks in every once in a while
voicing…is this thing still on?

I breathe in the pollution
drinking inhale, it never winks
three bulbs on at 3:30 am
a woman using her phone
a man smoking, also
a silhouette too far to map
I want to be them, so I can see
if I am leaking cytoplasm.

And these thoughts are
the good ones, from the list
haunting my head
so I turn my laptop back up
zoning in, promising myself
just one more short.

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