The young ones are here
They came from their classrooms
The outside
Their playgrounds and their parties
From kindergarten to university
The young ones came home
From their socially active worlds of interaction
Of friendship, play and connection
And now they sit where we tell them to sit
And look at screens as we say,
“Look, listen and learn”
As we make them
Stare, stare, stare
Now their parties are over
And they can play no more
We can’t have them fall behind
Something unseen, but oh-so-important.
The pandemic strikes
And changes everything
But we say one thing must continue
The young still have to learn, and they will.
Once we said your screen time is of concern
Children wanting to stare
All day and all night
But now we say, “Do it, that’s right,
and learn, learn, learn.”
The playing fields lay idle
The nightlife no more
A rejection of social connection
As you learn not to fall behind
What is this thing
That we don’t want to happen
Is there something dangerous
Lurking, as it waits for you to fall
And be behind?
So you sacrifice your youth
The age of play and fun
Of excited exuberance
You do this for everyone
You know you’ll be just fine
Your sacrifice is for the others
The old and the vulnerable
You do this for them
We didn’t ask
Or say, “Please help!”
We just said stop this and stop that
And turn to your screens now
There may be no exams
Or a predictable future
But no matter what
Learn, learn, learn
Did we forget to say
Thank you for your sacrifice
As we demand this of you?
Now, on you go, stare at your screen
We once said you did this too much
And now it’s all we want you to do
The age of screen time is now
So look away no more.
We created this world for you
Look around at what we did
We made your bed
And now we say
Lie in it.
And you do.
«RELATED READ» UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: A poetic response to the global pandemic»
image: Pixabay
