This is for the general poetry contest.
Sunday afternoon.
9 years old
a brief break from homework.
Online games. My escape to Eden.
Just 10 minutes,
then 20.
hooked.
I found love online.
Love? more like lust.
Soon eyes sting, back aches,
fingers rust.
social awareness turns to dust.
Now, i am a rotting corpse.
I should have seen,
before selling my soul to the screen
that there was so much more i could have been
instead of this left right, up down, click machine.
I think that I should play no more.
On Thing Thing 3 or Age of War
but what's to do outside my door?
The real world is such a bore.
I crawl back in, craving more
switch on, log in.
until fingers sore.
What a sorry tale i must tell
of how from freedom
down i fell
and came crashing through the gates of hell,
too deep for you to hear me yell
so then i lived, inside my shell.
But a happy ending?
"How can it be?!"
Well I was in chains,
but now, I'm free,
I found a way back home you see,
for when it occurred to me i had the key
to a nicer place, with no rich or poor,
no parents yelling at my door
no death or hunger for evermore.
no time was wasted,
and at half past four i climbed the steps, to the top floor,
of that brand new giant mega store.
I stepped out through the fire door.
Level 100. I said, this is it
my time has come to save and quit.
I walked to the edge.
the sky was grim
but a smile appeared above my chin.
and then it grew into a grin
for soon i would be cleansed of sin
the last boss fight is almost done
and as i took one more step, i said.
"I win".
