Respond to 2025: Algorithm
The last time I fully inhabited this fleshbag
was in the hours after my iPhone 6
joined me for an ocean swim. Since then I’ve learnt
more about the algorithm than any sapien should.
I mark the passage of a day not by the sun’s primordial arc
but by ideal story times, the hours of peak engagement.
I ghost the dead zones where meatspace movements
preordain my audience’s absence from the cloud.
Where to draw the line between dopamine hit
and digital affliction? I tried to touch grass once but now
even the Windows background has husked to an arid brown.
Respond to 2025: Graduation
Tonight you’re wearing purple
the colour of suffragettes
holding up half the world
did you realise that?
Respond to 2025: Five Friends Catch Up in the Group Chat
Isn’t this our third Eid in genocide / it’s Eid? / another day, another missed deadline / I am the worst mum, kids going to need therapy because of me / they bombed overnight — is your family ok? / this election, hey? / cancelled plans. again.
Respond to 2025: Elegy for a literary journal
It’s minor news, nothing deemed too relevant.
Two workers out of work, a loney welcome mat.
Subscribers suddenly without subscriptions.
Even the art house rags forgot to cover it.
A submission portal closed indefinitely.
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