Seen

I don’t want to be read—I want to be seen.

Still I refresh the numbers, watch them feed.

Yet every night I bow before the screen.

⠀

Blue ticks and tiny hearts blink in between

this life I’m wasting and the life I need.

I don’t want to be read—I want to be seen.

⠀

My body stiffens into scrolling machine,

my coffee cools beside a dopamine need.

Yet every night I bow before the screen.

⠀

If someday all these platforms go offline, wiped clean,

what’s left of me that anyone can read?

I don’t want to be read—I want to be seen.

⠀

Not “great post,” not “so relatable,” but clean,

astonished quiet when my worst truths bleed—

yet every night I bow before the screen.

⠀

I’m tired of shrinking down to fit the meme,

of calling this obsession simple need.

I don’t want to be read—I want to be seen.

Yet every night I bow before the screen.