On Screen, This is 2016

on screen, this is 2016

who even handles paper anymore?

money's mostly cloth or black numbers

on plastic, this is 2016

i buy my drugs with bitcoins

in the land of digitaly reasoned value

and hard core internet abstraction

the place to say or sell anything, valued or not

maybe a place to fear everything, cowards and, what not

maybe it's a place to find anything

friends maybe enemies

(anything maybe nothing) 

fearlessness found anonymously

and meekness borne from exposure

the one enslaved to appearance

and the other dissolved into chaos

the absolute poles of "giving a s**t"

still cut from strength

either one

dissolved

in 2016, in the same place

on screen, with an abstracted face

this, in 2016

is consumption on screen

found in so many different ways

but not face to face

Reviews

[Barbara Walker]

And it won't be long until we are born with the skill to use a keyboard and no one will even remember what cursive writing was or know how to write manually at all! This piece really got me thinking and you have no idea how rare that is. Kudos to you!

[Davidgeo]

Like the humans in the movie Wall-e.

We should be dead before that happens. Lucky us?

[aLittlePain]

Lot of truth here and I dig your delivery...who knew we'd be so s****y at doing anything face to face...lol. Anyway I enjoyed this one. R x

[Davidgeo]

I think as time goes on more and more people who over invest in their online persona will end up finding they have no real identity without the fake one. Social media used to be a place to share pictures now it is becoming a reason to take pictures. It's probably why people get absurdly offended to random online insults now more than ever, their digital profiles are very serious thing to them. It's kind of sad but seems to be where this social media thing is headed. Younger people are losing the ability to deal with social adversity in a healthy way.... the self esteem movement is cancer.

[ranscan]

As recitation or decrial, there is no denial, that there is mind, behind each line.
An entirely entertaining work, which stabs at or with, the realities of a technology and its effects upon society.
Its a novel dish, though perhaps a small addition of a little more punctuation, to stem the flow that could leave one breathless, and missing salient delicacies.
The play with words and nuanced edge of this piece is quite delicate.

[Davidgeo]

If you used more words to genuinely critique you'd make it so much easier for me.

Very few writers of any prestige or venue are worth the superlatives you throw around. Knock that s**t off... I had patience for the pretentious hand job review yesterday - but not f*****g today. Certainly not today.

[ranscan]

Since you have voiced a distinct dislike for the nature and tone of my reviews, I will refrain from reviewing anything of yours, unless I can, and let me phrase this in language that mirrors your own, "rip the s**t out of the work", constructively, of course.
I do not give "hand job" reviews to anyone, especially to writers whom have already displayed an ability and seriousness in their work, today or any day, "f*****g" or otherwise.
As you have written this in free verse there is little structure, no form, no rhyming scheme, and no requirement to do so. As it is not a narrative story, there is no way for it to maintain or lose the story line, and there is no emotional communication to maintain or quantify.
There are only four things I can even begin to consider, flow, word play, treatment of the subject matter, and intelligence of design. And though i may have been "pretentious" in the tone of my review in your opinion, I commented on those four things.
If you would prefer a simple nuts and bolts deconstruction of what I feel you have done wrong in a piece, where you have missed the mark, please feel free to ask me in a message to do so, and I will return exactly that, in a message back to you.

[Davidgeo]

I'll be fine without your reviews. Yes, you are a glad hander. No, I do not have respect for that. All your reviews look the same no matter the author. Congrats on this wall of text you sent me, a fine example of pretentious bullshit. Which would be okay if you had anything to say, but you don't... you are a jargon machine feigning meaning repeating the same things over and over. I have no respect for that. Never have, never will. Have the balls to be direct in front of all or say nothing... your response was nothing but excuses.

[ranscan]

Your certainly welcome to your opinion, and I am more than happy to respect your wishes. Stop sending me read requests.

[Davidgeo]

When I do send them I just click through my whole friends list. You're not worth taking the time to single out. You'll get them and I don't give a f**k how you feel about it. I'm not stopping you from reviewing me or even asking you not to, quite frankly I don't care what you do either way. You are irrelevant to me. I wouldn't expect me to respond to you positively - I do not have any respect for glad handing pretentious faux intellectuals such as yourself. You can always block me dipshit.... a course of action I highly recommend for a person such as your self.

[ranscan]

Such an extended display of anger and indignity seems rather much, don't you think? I do hope you find the next person you fire your venom tinged hostility at, willing to play your game with you.

[Davidgeo]

Why are you still talking to me? Doing the polite troll thing? Get lost with that crap dude.

[ranscan]

You are correct I am being polite.

[Davidgeo]

You're being antagonistic while pretending to be polite. You passive aggressive queens these days... not even at all self aware. What a shame. Now walk away jr. This is actually me being polite.

[ranscan]

Actually a reading of this conversation would suggest any antagonistic or inflammatory remarks are yours, and though you have been rude, demeaning, and dismissive, I wanted to leave you with a compliment. Your work displays some excellent talent.

[Davidgeo]

Hush now... go watch tv or something. This has been unproductive for some time now.

[Asante]

A very clear representation of how we've progressed technologically.. and more or less regressed everywhere else.
A very good write, man. Really, really felt this one.

[Davidgeo]

Thanks mang. Check out a dude name Jean Baudrillard. "Simulation and Simulacrum". You'll remember that one, even if you hate reading it.