Poem By Raymond Antrobus 'Keys To Life'

This sign is on one of the doors in the corridoor of Free Word. I had been warned

I've spent a lot of time in front of my computer over the last two weeks, especially at night, and the extent of time never occured to me until my girlfriend came over and literally unplugged it...

"PAY ME SOME ATTENTION!" she exploded ...

It sucked me right out of my virtual reality and I wrote a poem inspired by that moment.

'Keys To Life'

I’m never in my bed; I’m in front of my computer screen
Hitting backspace then enter, escape
And shift my heavy weight into a document page

I open myself

And stare into a blank window
Like holes in a looking glass,

I look past fore front
Typing something, while the caps are locked on
My eyes scream, but the voice is logged off

Crushing my frustration against each button
I can't express myself with emoticons

I wish people spoke in speech bubbles
Life could be easier if it were subtitled

As my world becomes more fantasized and inaudible
The more I plug into portable devises
The more likely I'll get a virus, and won't know how to fight it

I’ve tried to restart and forget what’s inside me,
The hard drive its having a hard time,
Like a car with a blocked exhaust pipe,

I’ve got so much to figure out and take into account,
But I don’t know how much is the right amount, or
Wheatear to type this up, or write this down, now

I’m a man with a mouse, like a man with a weakness,
But a man, with all the controls to delete them, although

I’ve reached this window, with nowhere to scroll,
Like a man with a map and nowhere to go,

Because I belong nowhere,
With no feeling of belonging,
Just a feeling of being unwanted,

Unwanted like memory on a forget me stick,

Unwanted like ‘memory’ on a forget me ‘stick’

As I’m pasted into another document
On another night I don’t sleep,

I reopen myself,
And stare out the window,
And into the street.