Images - Richard Fleming

This is a tree, he said and pointed to a tree.
We have seen images, they said.
There are many trees, he said. This tree is cedar.
We have seen images, they said.

Here is a flower, he said and pointed to a flower.
We have seen images, they said.
There are various flowers, he said. This is a rose.
We have seen images, they said.

This is a cat, he said. See it moves. Watch it stretch.
Just like the images, they said.
This is a dog, he said. Watch as it wags its tail.
Images are better, they said.

That is the sky. Those small birds are swallows, he said.
We have seen images, they said.
Over there are blue mountains and a lake, he said.
Can we go back inside? they said.

Richard Fleming


Image : Pixabay - JESHOOTS-com

Social ? Media - Ian Renouf-Watkins

She ghosted me man, ‘like’ totally cut me off
He posted me girl, ‘like’ totally in the buff
Influencers tend to their mindless herds
‘Random’ and senseless as utter turds

Swiping a screen has become such a habit
Thumbs get more sex than an average rabbit
Instant answers even when wrong
Like prefab intelligence very soon gone

Vocabulary is ‘so like’ mmm, ‘so not’ good
That congenital idiots appear understood
Messaging via an ‘app’ is apparently talking
And straightforward dialogue totally insulting

Feminism has been replaced in a makeover
Pictured powdered girls pouting moreover 
Trying so hard to look ‘so’ just perfect
Going too far and ‘like’ losing self-respect

Hairless air-brushed bodies presented
Girls and boys ‘so’ mentally stunted
Swipe left for no and ‘like’ right for yes
It’s hardly surprising they’re a total mess

Turn off the phone then ‘like’ leave it alone
Surgically extract it from your hand bones
Look up not down and perhaps be totally cool
And don’t get run over on the way to f’ing school

Ian Renouf-Watkins

Image : Pixabay - Firmbee

Laptop Blues - Richard Fleming

It’s a stand-off.

I try to stare it down

while it stares back, unblinking,

its flat, inscrutable face

giving nothing away.

I must stay focused.

I’ve won these battles

in the past

but this time

it’s got the upper hand.

What I need now

is the doorbell,

an unexpected visitor,

so that I

can break

eye-contact

and walk away

without losing face.

Richard Fleming

Security Leak - Lyndon Queripel

With the atomic bomb
Man created his own destruction
A contradiction in terms
With fullest instruction
Now nuclear power
Is the spirit of the age
From behind the bar code
Of a computer cage

There are wars now
And rumours of war
The sorrow of tomorrow
Never known before
Buildings will crumble
And mountains will shake
The sky will fall
And the Earth will quake

With a shadow on the Sun
And tidal wave seas
False prophets will cease
To promise you peace
At the expense of defence
People will starve and cry
As fields burn out
And rivers run dry

Violence is not the answer
For the poor and weak
Or a last resort
To the turned cheek
The Earth is the inheritance
Of the blessed meek
And this is all due
To a security leak.

Lyndon Queripel

Anthropod - Richard Fleming

They sit at desks, PC-equipped,
round-shouldered, fingers stroking keys:
without exception microchipped
beneath their skin, like worker-bees
engaged in labour: a dark hive
of insects only half alive.

An artificial, sterile pod,
is their environment, austere.
A faceless robot is their God.
Its scrutiny engenders fear
so they work tirelessly, these fools:
not men or women, merely tools.

This is the future, mark it well:
all life ersatz, no air, no trees.
No brimstone but no less a Hell
where there can be no escapees.
All life lived in an endless Now.
The Beast’s mark stamped on every brow.

Richard Fleming

Right Now - Tony Gardner

At this very moment there are killer whales
Chasing seals in the ocean.
Right now Polar Bears are playing with cubs
On the ice covered Arctic ground
At this minute seas are lapping golden sands
Beneath rustling fronds of palm leaves
And right now Nature's most intelligent creature
Is in a world of his own, playing Games on his I-pad
Somewhere at this very moment anxious folk get ready to
Embark on quite a serious First Date
Somewhere else is someone sitting an exam
Of vital importance for their future
Right now some ordinary girl is putting on her wedding dress
For the most memorable day of her life
While right here somebody is oblivious to all
But the images on his laptop
AS you read this there is Civil War in some far country
It does not affect you, until you realise
That people fleeing from this Hell may end up in Your Country
After all their tragedy and torment can you deny
Peace for them in this Land of the Free
Or do you close your mind because it's easier
To hit that button and turn on that electronic drug
And lose your great, superior mind to Fantasy

Tony Gardner

The Cyberseas - Kathy Figueroa

I traverse the cyberseas
Where words surge, eddy, and flow
Daydreams fill skies above me
Nightmares lurk in depths below

I crest waves exultantly
And skirt whirlpools that appear
Navigate through glitch-filled storms
That rage in the cybersphere

An intrepid traveler
I long to keep on learning
The need for discovery
And knowledge keeps me yearning

And so, like a mariner
Or adventurer of old
I sail in search of treasure
One that’s far greater than gold

Kathy Figueroa

Silver Surfing? - Jenny Hamon

Communication's very poor
Conversation is no more
'Cos hubby's on his iPad now
As long as batteries will allow

It's great that he can surf the net
And as a pensioner, that's no mean bet
But home life suffers, time runs away
He loses track of time or day

The shipping lanes keep him amused
From where ?, going to?, the ships have cruised
His Facebook friends converse with him more
Am I really that much of a bore?

I leave him to it 'till I need
To tell him that it's time to feed
But he's engrossed, the hearing's dim
Tea's ready, I'll just message him

Jenny Hamon

Be There - Stephen A. Roberts

Why can't I live in the moment
Instead of holding out my phone
Like a freakin' geiger counter?

Why not see the whole, the real
In live-screen now-vision, and be there
not looking through a 5 inch, 41 mega pixel window?

Does life not exist outside the bezel?

And on play back
- I hardly ever play it back -
Will the world be bigger than I thought?

Does it prove I was there?
I was, but I wasn't;
Think about it.

What will I see on my death bed?

When the final moment comes,
as I take my final fading selfie,
My life won't flash before me
because
it won't be there, it will
all be in the Cloud.

Stephen A. Roberts

Free App - Diane Scantlebury

Tweet me, never meet me
Face to face,
Only witter on twitter
Hash tag,
Befriend me on Facebook
I’ll find you,
Google earth search
Then stalk you,
Because I know where you live,

I could view you
On YouTube,
Like or dislike you,
Comment without contact
Criticise with no comeback,
Reject you on Tinder
Destroy your self esteem,

No law to stop me
I could hack into,
Hijack your life,
Create an avatar entity
Assume your identity,
Because mine’s so boring
And shallow,
And I’ve downloaded the free app.

Diane Scantlebury

Fatal Error - Drew H.W.

So here's the score.
Well actually it's more of a confession.
An admission of a macabre truth
That has plagued me for years.
I wish that I didn't do these things,
But I cannot help it.
I have come to realise that it is a part of me,
That I am powerless where it is concerned.
More sad is the fact that it is only getting worse.
Each time the loss is greater,
The physical harm more abhorrent and the suffering
More prolonged until in the end,
I contentedly watch the lights go out at my own hands!
I do feel remorse,
But it is short lived as soon enough a new victim
Comes along and I begin planning
All the exciting things I can do with it...
There is one next to me now,
A scarred and wretched thing,
Longing to be put down,
For it has been destroyed,
Broken down bit by bit.
Battered,
Shaken,
Nigh on drowned and then revived
Only to further suffer.
It slips in and out of responsiveness, sometimes
Flitting between a catatonic state and suddenly
Without warning, attempting to startle me in
Piercing alarm.
Yet in spite of my inevitable frustration and anger,
It still refuses to cooperate with my demands.
It is of little use to me now, the next shake could be
The last for all I know.
And that time will come, it always does!
And only then (like those before it), will I swiftly
remove its vitals,
Keeping them as mementos.
Only to wrap its lifeless frame in one of those charity
bags and mail it to some well meaning
organisation; how they must recoil in horror upon
receipt!
I am a mobile phone killer and this contract's almost up!

Drew H.W.

Wired To The Universe - Trudie Shannon & Lester Queripel

Dictated to by technology
Is that the way it has to be?
Wired to the universe
Deleted
Dilated
Interrelated
Satellite pulse to erase the heartbeat
Remote control or out of control?
Flick of a switch
Which is which?
Press button motion
Eradicate emotion
Invasive technology
Passive response

Dictated to by technology
Mobile phone…….leave me alone
Computer game
Inside my brain
Staring at a screen
Makes me want to scream
What happened to the ‘little things’?
They used to mean so much
An unexpected smile
The loving touch
Let’s get ‘in tune’.
Stay in touch
The ‘little things’ mean so much
People seem to mean less
The faster we ‘progress’

Trudie Shannon & Lester Queripel