I find that my life has been lost – all I recorded
on sad scraps of hotel paper
has found its home under Oxford-clad feet:
between the rich and the rain-drenched pavement.
I was better off posting stickers and writing on
dollar bills. Maybe they’re taken out of circulation,
but at least they’ve sat among half a dozen great presidents
and toured the grandest city’s subways.
In living no life, I found a fiber optic one already waiting for me.
and here was the only home my text could reside in,
with pixels and under formats and fonts.
But now that I’ve broken out of cell 01010110,
the world is my canvas.
As majestic as that sounds, there is no paint that withstands rain,
there is no hand to turn the pages of my memories,
and there is no ear attuned to the songs I sing
in my unsettled solitude.
I have taught myself to eat less,
value hours alone and to turn off my phone.
I promise, young poets, next time I get the opportunity, I’m risking
cell block 01010110 for the chance to
carve capitalism into a brick wall
for all the cavemen to read in ten thousand years.
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
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The subways in the grandest city? I would've said, "the city's grandest subways," as it seems more natural that way. If you mean the grandest city, I would suggest changing it.
Awkward! Perhaps just "I found a fiber-optic life waiting for me," and cut "In living no life."
I don't understand the significance of these numbers...are they intended to represent binary code?
Strong ending, definitely.
I don't see exactly how the first stanza ties into the second and third. The second and third describe an escape from imprisonment by technology, and suggest the decline of society, but the first seems like a completely different poem.
-Colleen