The Internet

This year the Vancouver International Writers Festival, in partnership with Youthink magazine held a writing contest for grade 8 – 12 students.

At the beginning of a class period, students were given the following words:
compost, Skytrain, Facebook, sob, what if, labyrinth. They had to write any form of prose, poetry short story, screenplay etc within the class period, using all those words.

From approximately 1600 participants, here is the grade 8 winner!

The internet;
They wanted it to be the world’s greatest library,
Only one problem,
Or maybe a few.
There’s no decimal system,
Nothing to separate the fact from the fiction.
Libraries are quiet, respectful,
But the world is roaring with unkind words;
Spread from minds, to fingers, to computers,
To the internet.
A labyrinth of confusing ideas,
False images.
Seeing is not believing, especially in the technical world,
But we can’t help but store it all always into our minds,
And believe it anyway, believe it like the world of god.
Because the internet is the idol of a godless generation.
The internet and your mind,
Are a boundless compost heap of information.
Checking Facebook and MSN,
Sob or laugh an evil laugh at the gossip and scandal,
Don’t care about its plausibility,
Spread it along.
Starring, fingers tapping, at the glowing screen;
Can’t tell if you are at home, at a bus stop, on a skytrain,
Don’t care,
You’re on the internet, the most powerful and subtle drug.
What if?
What if it was all gone?
Would we actually talk to each other?
Read Books? Think?
Or would we simply disappear,
And join our souls in purgatory?
All of us who are lost,
Lost in the internet.