Poetry

Doomscroll

My auntie texted me today,
“Is <app redacted> on your phone?
The news declares it should be gone!”
She wondered what I had to say.

I offered her a metaphor:
“Imagine time is gasoline,
the <app> a wood chipping machine,
and every brain a two-by-four.”

“You start to click; it starts to roar.
The fuel needle leftward rolls;
your mental lumber scrolls and scrolls.
You’re left with sawdust on the floor.”

Now <censored>, it will never last.
Like other fads, it too shall pass.
But by observing let’s amass
of tasty truth a fine repast:

Technology is just a tool.
A stone, a wheel, a clock, an app,
they’re pen and ink; they’re not the map.
A fool with tool is still a fool.

Dear reader, if you would be wise,
above all treasure, guard your heart;
for wisdom is an inward art
that best rewards selective eyes.

—David Jackson Lohnes
2022

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