DMC: "To the Facebook Ads that Dog My Days" by Brenda Davis Harsham

TO THE FACEBOOK ADS THAT DOG MY DAYS
          ~with a line from "Black Box, by Devon Hope"

Don’t show me belly fat, underwire bras or tell me what I’m
to think. Or want. Shut down. Back off. I’m allergic
to your diet pill ads, your voyeuristic snidery, asking me to
feel incomplete. For money. My dreams aren’t found in your boxes.

© 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham. All rights reserved.

"Black Box, by Devon Hope" © 2002 Nikki Grimes, from BRONX MASQUERADE


Click HERE to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the post.

Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:

Facing off with the Social Media Borg

I know I'm not the only one out there on a quest to find more balance in my life.  Unfortunately, it's rarely a question of will I drop a ball today, it's how many balls will be dropped and who will be affected by my lack of perfection.  My husband says that my self-expectations are too high.  While that's probably true (my fatal flaw is that I am prone to taking on too much), I do pride myself in picking many of those balls back up eventually. 

My lack of juggling stamina has never been more evident than now, as I've been pressing forward, determined to find my way as a children's writer.  It is said that in order for a writer to be successful these days, you must maintain a social platform as well as find time for your craft.  And to be fair, I do enjoy maintaining a public image on this blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.  But facing the social media monster day after day can be treacherous to my time, my family, and my sanity.  I feel like a struggling addict-- there are the good days when I keep my exposure to a minimum, and then there are the bad days when resistance is futile, and I've lost myself to the Social Media Borg.

Which brings me to today's little ditty...

     S ucking me in and swallowing whole,

     O ne after another, we all pay the toll.

     C aught up 

     I  n the whirlwind, 

     A nonymous cloud,

     L eave our bags at the door and prepare to be wowed.

     M indless machine,

     E ntertain and

     D evour!

     I    give myself freely—

     A bduct my last hour.

                                    © 2013  Michelle Heidenrich Barnes.  All rights reserved.

Have you found a way to preserve balance and sanity in your life?  If so, do tell!  And if not, well, perhaps Betsy at Teaching Young Writers can teach us a thing or two about how to control the chaos that comes with today's Poetry Friday roundup.