CYBER
CYBER
Written on 30 January 2014, the last stanza being added on 4 February 2014 but never published until now
What is this organism
Pulsating and thumping,
An irregular heartbeat
Of egos, tribulations, trials
Characters and personalities?
What is this organ
That is almost phallic
In its outreach?
What is this
That hides behind
Images
Where community appear
As anything other than themselves?
Cartoon characters,
Inanimate,
Animal and Aquiline,
Film stars,
Movies and Theatre,
Views,
Anything but the real self?
What lies behind
So many bogus profiles?
What causes people to fall in love
With photographers
Declaring Relationships
Family and even Marriage
And Civil Partnership?
Who?
Who is this faceless community
That can destroy a real person
In seven quick taps
B L O C K E D
Or the slightly less but devastating
knife-like incision
In ten quick taps…
U N F R I E N D E D
like a gargoyle tip-toeing
across a smelly pond
on unsavoury leaves?
Ummh?
And THEN begins
The Character Assassination.
The endless block posts.
Framed.
White letters on black.
Leaving everyone to muse
Is this being said of me?
Worse, is it addressed to me by stealth?
Am I its target?
Enter stage left
The Religious Brigade…
Pontiffs
Rabbis
Imams
Ministers
Priests and Bishops
A Cardinal and Archbishop or two
The Fundamentalists
---all are here
... self-appointed, of course
A Great Procession
A Grand Recessional
‘Only I have the Message
of Hope and YOUR Salvation
so listen to me (with a small em ;) )
Ignore the others
Otherwise, you're in a mess
And have no hope.’
And every self-important individual
Glorying and measuring their ‘success’
By the paper trail
Of ‘Posts’ and ‘Likes’
The surprise when rumbled…
But why don’t you ‘like’ me?
You ‘liked’ him!
You ‘liked’ her!!
You ‘shared’ them!!!
I don’t ‘like’ you
Because you presented yourself
As of Catwalk Beauty,
But I find you with a bus pass
And drawing your pension.
You have concealed from view
The beautiful heart
You do not realise you have!
Why have you pretended?
Why have you deceived me?
What is so messed up with you
That you doubt your own reality?
And then dare to advise me
On how to life my life!
As if you are the success
And I am the failure!
Away with you
Before an arsehole
exocets a hole in the wall
Away with you
Before exposure
For who and what you really are.
Go elsewhere
And play your games
Of subterfuge and Pretence
Stop imprinting others
With you.
Stop stunting the progress
Of others because they might
Be better placed in some way than you.
Go elsewhere
And make you outlandish claims
Of fame and glory,
And learn its difference
To infamy.
He who exalts himself
Will be humbled,
He who humbles himself
Will be exalted.
I've seen that written somewhere,
I wonder where?
I can't recall!
No one can tell me now
In this cyber community.
How can I be at the top
Of Jacob’s Ladder
When no one even
Knows my ladder exists?
Do I live in never-never land?
Have I fallen for the biggest con?
Do I actually believe
That what I write in this community
Is evidence of my ladder?
That my posts equate to publication?
For me, not.
For others, yes.
It is an unencumbered fact.
There are others of course,
Who use the community
As it was intended…
To outreach,
To communicate,
To build a bridge,
A bridge that stands
Astride the divide
Of truth and unreality,
Between that which is actual
And that is imagination
And endless dreaming.
There is much good in
The inter-stellar cyber life,
And when good exists
Its troublesome playmate bad
Will endeavour
Centre-stage by
Unlawful occupation and usurpation.
It goes by another name
Human Nature.
These lines are hard
And cut to the core
Only when we’re out of step
With reality.
If in step we are, but many
Of the millions
Who do live in this Community
Promoting good,
Throwing the lifeline,
Promoting good
And washing the bad
Down the drain
At stage-right.
13 February 2024
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Digital Artwork © 2024 KTW unless otherwise credited
Written on 30 January 2014, the last stanza being added on 4 February 2014 but never published until now
Without Guile, without Cunning
There are others of course,
Who use the community
As it was intended…
To outreach,
To communicate,
To build a bridge,
A bridge that stands
Astride the divide
Of truth and unreality,
Between that which is actual
And that is imagination
And endless dreaming.
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
