‘The Devil Is a Man With WiFi’
Photographer Cherie Butler resides in the Washington, D.C. area and has published several writing pieces. She also expresses her emotions through the visual arts, although a novice. She believes that moments captured in the blink of an eye will never be repeated, so the stillness of one simple shot is what speaks on unspoken moments forever.
The Devil Is a Man With WiFi
Do you love the hate you live in?
Does it wake you in the morning
With a kiss?
Brushing its thumb
Over your lips?
Do you wear it under your arm
Bouncing like a newborn baby
Resting at your hips?
Does it find you when you’re tired
And drag you out of bed?
The blue light draws you in like a gnat
You’d rather sleep instead.
What does it look like to you?
Your mother, your brother, someone you’ve never met?
Where did you meet the uglies in your head?
Did you meet them long ago?
Amongst the humming tower?
The desktop surrogate mother
A semblance of a dad
The soft glow from the monitor
The best friend you never had
You can tell a lot about someone who thinks in absolutes
A lot of lonely living on the island of refutes
So satisfied with the resolute
Long overdo for a hard reboot
Karma farming as soon as your eyes open
Addiction to hatred is the new form of coping
Not even your God cares as much as you do
Worst version of you signaling virtue
Misdirected malignant anger
On a phone app made for teens
Spat at a stranger
And if you died tomorrow
Was your time a time well spent?
Digital detox, a way to repent.
Do you score all your wins?
Do you keep tally?
Take me back to the days of being 13/f/cali
Two lights contrast
Only one can be true
Glad I’m not you
And I thank God for that
I thank God for that
I thank your God for that
And me and your God
We laugh behind your back
Yeah,
I thank God for that
Rachel Koren is a writer from Michigan, currently living in Tennessee with her husband and dog. Her work traces survival, tenderness, and the strange humor of growing up in the wreckage. She writes about leaving home, learning softness after chaos, and finding beauty in what remains.
