The screen’s phantom light
Casts silhouettes of goblins
Off cheerful toys and wrinkled clothes.
Echoed mouse clicks, update chimes
And muffled sobs from a ghostly face
With red eyes fills the room.
Another post, another gunshot,
Bloody bullet holes to self-worth
From faceless creatures behind keyboards.
Don’t care about the real-life slaughter;
The casualties of their online onslaught
Generated by their virtual crimes.
Scrolls through the toxicity,
As one more post strikes,
It’s venom leaches with each word.
Other like-minded cowards hit like
To acidic abuses and death wishes
Like a judge, jury and executioner.
How simple it is by a few strokes
Annihilates a reputation in seconds.
Whilst followers relish the spectacle,
Luxuriate in anonymity,
Neglect that depravity leaves a trail
Right back to its putrid core.