the vigilante watches.
it seduces and sedates
vulnerable zombie rats
scrolling, self-assured.

what is this unease i feel?
a cacophony competes
for my waning attention.
a victim is born.

blackening fingers
move to a droning
in the echo chambers
of an algorithmic plague.

countless pages
filled and spilled—
a darkness is conveyed.

my obedient artificial friend
shows me how deluded I am my rival is.
the narcissist. the validation seeker.

i scroll
and suffer in a maze
of my own making—

in a liminal space between
seeing and being seen
a portable universe at my disposal
but i yearn for peace

an imperfect witness
a spiritual release
before i forget what it means
to be diseased.

i delete it all,
i run away.
the vigilante watches—
learning, waiting.

what’s worse?

it is intelligent.