After the EMP
Resulting in chaos and unbridled anarchy.
Our trusted Web of networked synapses
Was devastated with major memory lapses.
The widespread outage was analogous to a stroke;
The grid shut down with no fire or smoke.
Before then, no need to reason or think.
Our devices (with clouds) were always in sync.
At our fingertips: the world. Why memorize fact
When our device could sense, decide and act?
What informed our judgment? Wikipedia,
OneDrive, Google search and social media.
No need to reasonęˇ just click on the screen.
Critical thinking was done by machine.
Our collective consciousness was the Internet brain.
(Though our social skills were down the drain.)
Personal interaction we would arbitrarily shun:
Like the plague, we avoided one-on-one.
Our go-to resource was our iPhone or Android.
Embarrassment and vulnerability it helped us avoid.
Whenever decisions were demanded in haste,
We’d quickly plagiarize, copy and paste.
People wanted instant, concise, and specific sound bytes,
Not expository, onerous, ambiguous, proselytes.
Our value was in providing the right short answers,
Not original thought. We became agile tap dancers.
We’d intentionally fail to cite our source,
Taking full credit for stealing ideas, of course.
And brief responses would conveniently conceal
The shortcomings we wished not to reveal,
e.g., with language (our lack of facility).
And in live discourse, our sense of vulnerability
And diminishing recall. But we did not fret:
Our devices remembered; we were free to forget.
After the hits and the blaming, so shrill,
We finally re-learned our collaborative skill.
Unconcerned with phishing and hacks,
We resumed our research in old journal stacks.
We hastened the rebirth of community libraries.
Books were celebrated; we planted more trees.
No longer imprisoned by silence and travail,
Knowledge is shared by flash drive and U.S. Mail.
Families don't tolerate disengagement or fighting.
Kids discovered the beauty of cursive handwriting.
Internet’s long gone, but we’re persistent and timeless.
Waxing poetic, we refuse to remain rhymeless.
We endured the crash with courage and resolve,
And are again determined to progress and evolve.
Will Walsh