February 4, 2025: "The Elder Sister," Doom Scrolling, "Facebragging"

The last couple nights, I've been sucked into doom scrolling on my phone. That doesn't make for restful sleep. And I know all about the dangers of social media and the importance of factchecking. Yet, there's something hypnotic reading about the lawlessness and willful ignorance of the Republicans in Washington, D. C. (Don't worry, this isn't going to be a political post, I promise.) It's almost like the days following September 11 when the images of the towers falling played on a loop, over and over and over, on every station. Eventually, I had to stop watching TV because I was afraid I was traumatizing my one-year-old daughter.  I needed to protect her.

We are living in an exhausting time in the United States.

Sharon Olds is protected from harm by her sister . . . 

The Elder Sister

by: Sharon Olds

When I look at my elder sister now 

I think how she had to go first, down through the 

birth canal, to force her way 

head-first through the tiny channel, 

the pressure of Mother’s muscles on her brain, 

the tight walls scraping her skin. 

Her face is still narrow from it, the long 

hollow cheeks of a Crusader on a tomb, 

and her inky eyes have the look of someone who has 

been in prison a long time and 

knows they can send her back. I look at her 

body and think how her breasts were the first to 

rise, slowly, like swans on a pond. 

By the time mine came along, they were just 

two more birds in the flock, and when the hair 

rose on the white mound of her flesh, like 

threads of water out of the ground, it was the 

first time, but when mine came 

they knew about it. I used to think 

only in terms of her harshness, sitting and 

pissing on me in bed, but now I 

see I had her before me always 

like a shield. I look at her wrinkles, her clenched 

jaws, her frown-lines—I see they are 

the dents in my shield, the blows that did not reach me. 

She protected me, not as a mother 

protects a child, with love, but as a 

hostage protects the one who makes her 

escape as I made my escape, with my sister’s 

body held in front of me.

This poem is not a warm, fuzzy ode to Olds' sister.  Far from it.  It's more like an apology, in a lot of ways.  You get the feeling that Olds was angry with her sister for a long time, never forgiving her the things she did to Olds when they were children.  Now, in retrospect, Olds realizes that her sister deflected parental abuse, protected Olds.

Right now, I need to be protected from social media.  It feeds into my worst inclinations as a human being.  Basically, I'm driving a car and slowing down at the scene of an accident to catch some carnage.  It's not healthy.  (Not to mention the fact that I'm falling under Mark Zuckerberg's spell, as well.)

So, tonight, after having dinner and drinks with some best friends, I'm NOT allowing myself to doom scroll.

Instead, Saint Marty wrote a poem about the pitfalls of Facebook, based on the following prompt from The Daily Poet:

On this date in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.  Write a poem that incorporates one or more of these social networking-inspired coinages:  LOL (Laughing Out Loud), OMG (Oh My Gosh), IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), facebragging, vaguebooking, unfriend, Tweetup, lappy (laptop), smartphone, <3.  If you need an opening line, browse through your Facebook statuses and choose one with which to begin your poem.

Facebragging

by: Martin Achatz

So excited!  Just got a raise!

               making 50 cents more than minimum now

Down 20 pounds and counting!

               ate a box of Froot Loops and purged

Sweet sixteen for my beautiful daughter!

               who had a pregnancy scare last month

Christmas tree is so beautiful this year!

               never took it down last year

So excited for this new chapter in my life

               living out of my car

I can still fit into my high school clothes!

               fat back then, still am

Blessed to have such a loving partner

               just got diagnosed with chlamydia

My son is on the Dean's List!

               of students on academic probation

Beautiful sunset tonight!

               stopped by cannabis shop on way home

I live in the greatest country on Earth!

               didn't know you were Swedish

New glasses!

               because I'm old

Northern lights are out--sky pregnant with green!

               did I mention the cannabis shop?