The Internet:
Like a giant fishing-net,
draws out all matter of seafood
The World Wide Web:
Ensnares us all in its network
and we are eventually wiped out
But a netizen's death is odd, hence
they may not truly be bereft of life
but simply in a state of abeyance
They're in a bizarre kind of limbo
you can not tell, alive or dead
there is nobody to ask who'd know
it's a mix of befuddlement and dread
There is no closure in such a death
there's no funeral, no official mourning
Instead, posts are their last puffs of breath
what is left of the netizen, if a site is closing?
A mystery indeed. I feel I may have to investigate further, Nika.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I don't know which is the more compelling reading: the poem or the prose reaction. They work together but as the poem demonstrates, the actual fate of this individual is unknown. And in the poem you point out there is no closure; also, the situation is a kind of limbo. All of which makes for an unsettling feeling in the reader, an unease about things we take for granted, like the internet, like accounts at YouTube et al. It's a brave new world we're in, and no doubt there will be many other mysteries like this one over time. BTW Kwaye AKA Ash Flame sent me a message yesterday. Give him my regards. I was impressed by the poem the two you co-wrote. There was a lot of raw energy in it.