Behind a Screen of Blue

Location

I blink tiredly, my head pounding

an absurdly bright monitor flickers before me

Another night of living in a world fantasy

in a virtual realm of limitless possibility

 

All of it within the tap of a key

the pressing of a button

the click of a mouse

 

Look away to a room

bathed in the filtered sunlight

of a Saturday morning

 

Wrappers litter the floor

the air smells of something strange

something. . . rotting perhaps?

 

I Log in

Dive in

to a world unfamiliar

to a place so familiar

 

Where pixelated facade protects my face

My friends from school replaced with a computer screen

The hearty laughter of others

heard only through the fuzzy filter of an online call

 

Suddenly, the laptop closes

the smartphone locks

Turning, I reach for them

BRB

 

My tendrils of influence stripped from me

the power button not only shuts off my device

it shuts off my life

all of it gone as the screen dims to black.

 

I see others from afar

and quietly try to play solitaire

only to find I don’t know how to set up the game

I look for a monitor, I need to Google it

 

I race to my desk and open my laptop

My tendrils grow back

A breath of stale air

A sip of lukewarm soda

 

The living of a real life is unnecessary

Who needs it when I can

do what I cannot when I’m

AFK?

 

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