The Feed

The feed
It’s with me now
Up close and personal
Like a friend that won’t go home
It never turns off, never slows down
Images never ceasing, content stuck reloading
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling some more
Menus hover all around me
But always out of reach
Ghosts in the machine, or maybe that’s me
Sights and sounds from all around
Prompt keeps flashing
Uploading even when I’m not operating
I’m struggling to find the reasoning
Strain to hold onto true thinking
Years of headsets, earbuds, microphones
I swore they were listening
Perhaps training, learning, understanding
Does the brain wait for prompts
Or do the prompts command the brain
Or is it somewhere in between
Rest escapes me, the feed remains
Each coded line signaling
Triggering, messages tempting
Video content buffering
And the constant pinging
Measured in a progress bar
Cursor trails, system fails
I feel my fingers twitching
Empty hands drawn into reflexive patterns
Now I am the controller, or am I being controlled
Make it stop, take it off
The feed keeps taunting me
Growing dim with subtitled content
Lulling me into a false reality
Letting me think I’m still in control
Refresh
My pulse quickens and the dopamine flows
Whispering to me internally
Showing, but not selling me
There’s a gap where the ads should be
Why isn’t it nudging me
Something’s wrong with this new feed
Refreshed into another thing
The voice
Something new, someone new
So familiar, how it sounds like me
Speaking over the feed
Clarity convoluted, distorted
Disingenuous logic underlying
It’s coming from inside of me
Telling me while warning me
Perhaps I’m still fighting the feed
Bit of code are still my own
Yet I cannot see them on the screen
The user becoming the used
With no escaping

Additional Reading

R.J. (Ralph) Schwartz is an American poet, author, website owner, and online publisher. His writing spans several poetry collections—ranging from spiritual and romantic to fear-driven explorations—and even extends into science fiction. Notable works include:

• Hope – Inspirational and Spiritual Poetry

• Things That Go Bump in the Night – Poetry of Fear and Fright

• The Lover’s Thread – Poetry for Couples

• Poetry of the Human Condition – The Ups and Downs of Modern Living

• The Secrets of the Moon (a sci-fi novel co-authored with his son Sebastian J. Schwartz)

Schwartz’s work is described as purposefully wordy, richly descriptive, and thematically grounded in nature, romance, antiquity, and forgotten histories. He writes regularly on platforms he manages, including The Creative Exiles, a collaborative venue for writers, and The Gypsy Thread, which delves into offbeat histories, pagan lore, and poetry.

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R J Schwartz

I write about everything and sometimes nothing at all.I'm fascinated by old things, rusty things, abandoned places, or anywhere that a secret might be unearthed.I'm passionate about history and many of my pieces are anchored in one concept of time or another.I've always been a writer, dating back to my youth, but the last decade has been a time of growth for me.I'm continually pushing the limitations of vocabulary, syntax, and descriptive phrasing.

Latest posts by R J Schwartz (see all)

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