Phone Slave

On September 29th, the proof of me needing to write and present this poem couldn't have been more evident. Not only on the NYC trains and streets while going to, while at, and going home from work. But cellphone use has gotten so out of hand that it was even at disrespectful levels within the audience at The Inspired Word open mic at which I debuted the poem.

First, when me and my guest sat down in a booth, a girl to my right was texting away while a performer was onstage. I initially felt offended for the performer on stage. That is until that performer got off the stage, then by chance I turned around to see that performer had left the stage to sit in a booth behind us, ...texting away while the next performer was onstage. It was blatant disrespect from one performer to another.

Sadly, this disrespect and loyalty to cellphones over human beings is not only seen at open mic events. They can be seen in every kind of show, in every means of travel, and in relationships. Hence why so many relationships are doomed to fail. It's really sad that this is what we have become. And I hope the lyrics of my poem made that clear, and we start a needed change within ourselves because of it.

Why are you such slaves to your phones?

Has it ever crossed your minds?

That it’s the reason you’re single and lonely

Letting it consume so much attention and time

You can’t walk down the street

Or climb up and down a flight of stairs

Without letting that damn smartphone

Get priority of your stare

Do you need to kiss the grill of a Mack truck

To make you finally stop being blind?

It’s scary to think it might take such a catastrophe

To make you prioritize your eyes and mind

And since such is the case

It is a damn shame

That it’s your phone that’s smart

But you can’t say the same

Maybe you should buy it an engagement ring

Maybe make it your spouse

Try living happily ever after

You and it alone in a big old house

So how will you consummate this marriage?

Once you and it have tied the knot

Groom shocks his dick fucking the charging hole?

Bride lets the phone vibrate in her twat?

Call my words vulgar

Call them crude

Doesn’t change how much they are the truth

And I will not change a single lyric

As long as you show you’re socially sick

Hoping folks see you engulfed on your status symbol

Thinking it makes you cool

But in reality, you’ve just shown yourself

To be a robotic, socially inept, fuckin’ fool!

For you hold onto your phone

Before you hold your child’s hand

Letting you children run wild

Without a single reprimand

Through the streets, through stores, or through a church

Where they’re going and what they’re doing, you’re totally unaware

Makes one wonder are they really yours

Hence why you don’t seem to care

You dismiss the blessing of children

And how they are to be adored

So what’s your excuse when they act out

From the years your “parenting” left them ignored?

We put on this façade like we’re so evolved

Yet we’re worst than prehistoric man

For this servitude to technology like camping outside stores

Makes closeness only LOOK bundled in our hand

Meanwhile, the human connect is getting out of reach

Creating many desperate social acts

We look and read the news wondering how and why

We became an age burdened with these sad facts

It’s because so many, too many of you are Phone Slaves

Clutching your phone like it’s your life and heart

Refusing to see the signs

Of how it’s tearing your life apart

Stop living a life of social silence by texting

Actually TALK to your family, friends, and lover

For if we don’t maintain our social skills

The growth of this Age of Anger by Loneliness

Is what we make ourselves doomed to discover