Technopocalypse

By Shania Cox

This poem was inspired by Girls Write Now’s workshop “Think Like an Elite Athlete” in partnership with NBCU. It explores the game Technopocalypse and its attempt to rid our addiction to technology.

You’re sitting there scrolling, waiting for some action
Seeking likes and satisfaction.
All of a sudden you hear some knocking,
BOOM, BOOM
Technopocalypse is starting!

Panic flows throughout your body
Oh goodness, they finally caught me!
You go downstairs for some form of protection
But it’s way too late now
The battle is already in its inception!

Grab your gear, body armor, grab it all!
These beasts are here for the long haul.

Everyone’s busy grabbing their positions
With one thing in mind – the scary mission.
Beat these bots that are trying to take over!
They throw their fireballs, rays and all
Run as fast as you can, just try not to fall!

Your heart is pounding and you can’t quite stop it.
You’re just trying to get out without getting hit!
Time is running out.
People are scrambling all around you.
The bots are closing in. There’s no way through!

They’re snatching everything, all types of gadgets
You’re hiding your only phone, in hopes they don’t catch it.
The chaos is winding down. You can finally catch a break.
This all felt like one big ‘ole dream.
Maybe it wasn’t as hectic as it seemed?

You go back to scrolling and waiting for action
Still trying to find that long lost satisfaction.
The bots are still lingering outside your door
But you can’t seem to figure out what for?

One by one, the bots still linger
Their emotionless faces pass by the window.
Even when faced with a potential dystopia.
We are presented with an endless utopia:
Highlight reels, mushy captions are all that we see
Even these bots can’t get us back to reality.

Process

I knew that I would have more creative freedom with this piece than the fall GWN submission, so it was important to start thinking about ideas early on. My mentor and I decided, during one of our check-ins, that I should go to the March workshops to get a feel of what I might possibly want to write about. The March 9 one, “Think Like an Elite Athlete,” resonated with me most. The exercise for that workshop gave you the space to be creative, as it centered around coming up with your own imaginary sport. My sport was called Technopocalypse. In this sport, there are giant bots chasing people in an attempt to steal everyone’s gadgets. My poem was inspired by my observations. Every day, we use technology and we immerse ourselves into these fake realities. It would be helpful to have some form of intervention in order to reduce these bad habits. So, on first glance it may seem like the bots are the villains of the game but in actuality, our technology is. While I originally decided on doing a short story, I ended up deciding that poetry would be the best genre. I had not dabbled with poetry before this but I figured it would be fun to experiment. The sport that I created was fast-paced and a poem would allow me to convey that speed due to its structure (shorter lines, shorter length).