Social lives are just a game of darts
Compelling everyone to call the shots
With such brutal force, you have to hit the spots
And rely on luck while the hand throws the axe,
While calculations work their magic when someone hacks
Laptop computers with shiny Facebook accounts
And keyboards saying things from no-one’s mouths
As sterile lives update walls amidst adverts
And as bull’s eyes push into someone else’s throats…

Armed with perfect images and pristine sights,
One speaks thousands of meanings; memes and quotes
Fill the blank canvass like sprawling sixteenth notes
Playing background music in everyday commutes;
And yet no one hears the laughter from convoluted words
Or the deep sighing after a heartfelt “congrats!”
Like wishful thinking among flower pots
As you water the winter season in dried-out plants
With pumpkin spice lattes throughout the blazing droughts…

Where else should I find relief within deserts
If no single presence lives among the tents?
Where should my feet lie, away from hot sands?
The heart sees brain fog: blurry figures through mists
Of miseries, of isolations, of unwanted polka dots
Smearing the LED screens of human instincts
As reflections curse real-life robots walking among streets;
Walking towards enlightenment, towards the dregs
Of tea leaves littering these porcelain cups;
Or are they paper cups? Please, tease out the facts
And discern them clearly among filtered splats
Of trivial conversations and zesty lemon tarts…

And when a familiar face lights up among the crowds,
You start to wonder if candles can melt opaque clouds
Or if a game of darts can burst aquarium tanks;
I’d rather stare intently at a faulty house of cards
Collapsing flawlessly under the typhoon’s wind gusts.

– jkf, 26 November 2018.