It used to be at a wedding
Or a graduation party
Your quirky uncle sitting next to your friend
Dogs weaving about underfoot
Holding precariously thin paper plates which droop under the weight of pistachio pudding and hot dogs, early summer’s kind light a balm for the awkwardness
Of world’s colliding
School World ran headlong into Family World, and Extended Family World
And it was as odd as pistachio pudding smeared on the hot dog bun
Separate both were fine, together…
Hmm.
Every sign in now
We pull up to the All Worlds
And now we know how cousin A votes
And that neighbor B got a new wife
And high school friend C wants us to sell products on her downline
And acquaintance D is a racist after all
And the person E we once respected posts nonsense
And there’s no pistachio pudding
And all the awkwardness
And lately
Savagery
Disagree with me? LEAVE MY COUNTRY
Disagree with me? GROW A BRAIN
Disagree with me? (insert insults of choice)
It is a forum
It is where people “are”
But why have they brought swords and shields and napalm and vitriol
Forums are for discourse
Not violence
Not hatred
Not
This.
