A Conundrum
Modern day life
This poem has been written as part of Sahil Patel's Lifeline's poetry prompts on Medium. Thank you, Sahil for the invite.
Today's prompt is: Compose a poem that reflects the complexities of modern life. Explore the challenges, joys, or the paradoxes of our digital age, the interconnected world, or the pursuit of balance in a fast-paced society. Let your words express the essence of today's world and its impact on the human experience.
A Conundrum
Modern day life
As my eyes begin to open, my hand is already reaching,
For what? You may ask,
Well, my phone or my iPad,
Is that not your very first task?
**
I squint at the bright light thrust from the screen,
Attempting to stop my eyelids from slamming shut at the onslaught,
Ouch! My eyes tear up in protest,
This torment is not what they sort.
**
But I persevere as I feel I must,
My eyes gradually succumb to the inevitability of it all,
I have this desperate need to connect,
To see if anybody messaged, text or maybe a missed call.
**
My heart sinks at the blank brightness of the screen,
My mood shatters. I feel nobody cares,
So I turn to social media, sure there I would have been seen,
People will have like my posts, there may even be multiple shares.
**
I scroll the newsfeed, searching for any mention,
I check my profile, diligently counting the likes received,
Disappointing few it seems,
I question, what is it I achieved?
**
I study the happy family pictures others have posted,
Gloomy at how they all seem to laugh and smile,
Photos depicting the happiness of their world,
While I lay here feeling unloved and not worthwhile.
**
I lay my digital product down beside my head,
Struggling to now face a day in my current mood,
I wish my eyes would close in slumber for awhile,
As I lay and cruelly brood.
**
It's a conundrum of our modern life,
A dependency on the digital world that can uplift or destroy,
At times a blessed connection,
But at others a destructive mood destroying ploy.
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Originally published on Medium
About the Creator
Colleen Millsteed
My first love is poetry — it’s like a desperate need to write, to free up space in my mind, to escape the constant noise in my head. Most of the time the poems write themselves — I’m just the conduit holding the metaphorical pen.
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More stories from Colleen Millsteed and writers in Poets and other communities.
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2023 was an incredible year for women in film. Between Beyonce and Taylor’s concert movies, Barbie and 1 single woman getting nominated for best director at the Oscars there was a lot to celebrate. But just like with anything the universe seeks balance and in 2023 we nerds also experienced something on page and screen that we should have evolved out of decades ago. In the year of Barbie we had not 1, but 2 incidents of fridging in the comic book universe. Both came from Marvel and both are inexcusable. I would love to celebrate how far representation in this field has come, really I would. But I can not do that if we are still making the same mistakes. I am not going to celebrate that there is now less sexual assault in comics. I am not going to celebrate that fridging is less common. I am not going to celebrate that women are infantilized less often in comics. I will not celebrate less. Not in 2024 when every grown person on the planet should know better. I will not be celebrating less. I will celebrate when women are ALWAYS treated like human beings, fictional or not.
By Alexandrea Callaghan6 days ago in Geeks
Comments (8)
Sadly, so true… well said.
Very nice piece on tech fatigue and the lackluster veil of social media
Perfectly stated! Fantastic job, Colleen! Love the message here! 💫
Eloquently written!!! Loved the pure honest reality!!!💕❤️❤️ Congratulations on Top Story!!!
It's definitely a modern problem. Well said. Congrats on the TS.
This was perfection. 🤍 I have nothing to add, because you said it all. I’m not on social media for these reasons. I wouldn’t be on social media unless I owned a business, or I was a public figure, and then I’d pay somebody to run my social media. You described a conundrum I had in my youth. People always online are looking for something missing in their real lives, and they’ll never ever find it online. They’re looking for human connection. They’ve got to log off to find it. Many of them have friends, family, romantic partners—but no connection to them, because they’re glued to their phones. I worked hard to build a connection to my spirit first and foremost, and then people in my life. A lot of useless people left my life. Now, everyone in my life appreciates my presence so strongly, and shows it. I don’t go online looking for anything except inspiration. You are my inspiration this morning. Can’t wait to deep dive into more of what you’ve written.
Social media is so fake my friend. Don't ever believe a happy photo. That's just a mask people put on for a show. For what it's worth, everyone is just as miserable as us. Lol, I don't think this is the correct way of cheering you up but I still hope it worked! Because it's the truth! Loved your poem!
Lol, if it weren't for Vocal & romance scammers, I'd get no messages whatsoever.