THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS SELECTED IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST.
My devices complete me
I think
I have forgotten what it is like
To think ‘just with my mind’
My devices are like an extension of my brain
Hosting memories
And a one step away search
I register sound of a notification
Much before the sound of the sparrow that perched.
In any conversation,
I have words on the tip of my tongue, well almost
But I hardly can say it through and through
If I am stuck for a second
Google comes to my rescue
Ensuring I don’t trouble my mind a lot
I take this help unapologetically
Without a doubt
I hear people around
But I seldom really listen
Because the reels in my phone
Have me engaged and smitten
With half hearted attention
And earplugs-in
added with
Almost zilch observation
I walk around.
I haven’t been hit by a vehicle so far
Makes me astound
Losing my train of thought
Is an often occurrence in life
Anxiety, panic
Seem to be my partners for life
When I am listening to you
My mind is hardly in ‘that moment’
I am like a moon of thought
Oscillating between full and crescent
These devices surely give us a long vision
But a callous nearby sight
My shallow opinions
Are just a google way
Blurring my wrong and right
And, I don’t seek mental help
Because it plays down the
happy illusion I have built
I don’t apologize, I don’t confess
I prefer my old friend guilt
You know,
Not just me,
But a thousand clones of me
Though we are all
drowning in this abyss together
But no one seems to be keen
to swim out from this pretentious sea.
Dear reader, care to drive me out
to an island where I am just me
Where I feel the winds
the sun
and the laps of the sea
Where I control my devices
and the devices don't control me.