Social Slaughter

by Josephine Teoudoussia

Summer of social distancing

I'm screaming in my head, overthinking

Quiet in my room alone

Bored, boring, lonely, limits

Friends faces tiny on my screen, far away, much farther than 6 feet

Smiles or frowns behind masks, annoying masks

Rules and restrictions—get in line, stay apart, hand sanitizer, masks, annoying masks

Temperature gun held to my forehead

Summer of social uprising

We’re screaming black lives matter at a protest with masks on.

And that’s because of a white man with the same privileges as the president, who works in a uniform holding a deadly weapon.

It only took him 21 weeks of training to start his job, but a hairstylist has a minimum of 12 months.

One by one we fall by the gun shots and wounds, shot into us mentally and physically...

bam!

another unarmed black citizen, 12, had a toy gun

bam!

another unarmed black citizen, 17, had a candy bar

bam!

another unarmed black citizen, 26, sleeping in her bed

bam! ...

“I hate that we have to come here for another loss of an unarmed black kid in America,” says the pastor at the dead folk's funeral.

Summer of social media

"Get off your phone!" they yell and say we're wasting our lives on our social media

But my social media is my weapon, protecting me from

boredom

isolation

loneliness

limits

silence

ignorance

blindness