No New Notifications | Teen Ink

No New Notifications

November 8, 2021
By efaithm PLATINUM, White Plains, New York
efaithm PLATINUM, White Plains, New York
21 articles 0 photos 0 comments

i shut my eyes and hold my breath

then check my phone again

 

i pace the room and check the time

no notifications

which is fine

 

i toss the screen across the room

and let my feelings linger and loom

 

then miss the comfort

and the peace

of morphing my world into a virtual escape

 

i shake my head

and tap my phone

just once more,

just in case

anyone’s tried to reach me

 

i tap and click

and…the results are in

no one’s tried to call or text me

but that’s ok, i can just let it be

 

instead i scroll and stroll

through hiding happy people and internet trolls

 

and i pretend that i’m living their smiley and sparkling pixelated lives

instead of the dazed out ghostly reality of mine.


i tap on the glass

and tap some more


laugh until i cry

cry until i laugh


and sob until

the salted droplets blur my vision

and the screen


so i shut my phone,

And i’m left with nothing but the unmasked stranger on the black screen staring back at me


i toss my phone and throw it away

i’m done

so very done


but blurs of people and places and posts

bounce off the walls of my battered brain


and i glance at that evil little box from

across the room

that calls and taunts me until im forced to grab that box of doom


i turn it on…

just once more


or maybe two (or three)

or four

or…maybe even more


The author's comments:

I think we can all relate to that inevitably awful feeling when we realize we have no new notifications, so this poem sums up how that feels, and it also shows my phone addiction (which we can all admit to falling victim to at some point or another).


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 3 comments.


Afra ELITE said...
on Nov. 11 2021 at 9:29 am
Afra ELITE, Kandy, Other
103 articles 7 photos 1824 comments

Favorite Quote:
"A writer must never be short of ideas."<br /> -Gabriel Agreste- (Fictional character- Miraculous)

@efaithm, You read my mind by your poem...It is lovely...
I wanted to share my poem too...I hope you all would like it...It got published recently...http://url4857.TeenInk.com/ls/click?upn=Rg1qXhbB7thJkhVgbd11OV2YsYP-2BZqjqyziuUy0IjZH9sfu6gN5ERPfSe0HaWO-2FWDEcgtAIuGpacidd1eckhnA-3D-3DPR0B_T5fi2s9Uiy-2FzgxQfcwmp5DqoJBiAHlSTa55SUIrfp67lCEc3Fn6nqGwQoqjyRMhSHdZkB4ZdkQWEQAqnAt-2BeWdHgeDMzJguzNVPKfMZXyMl1e1O764qdf1QIVMg4wmFoX2mhE2eq0w787k-2FxmPx9KUvQrhlGhRGLw9ooZkYhUz8awO0VRG7qK-2FmOGSjef2NElcoji1VZxW0LSjP8r4NkZw-3D-3D

on Nov. 9 2021 at 9:23 am
smaddie24 PLATINUM, Cityland, Wisconsin
28 articles 0 photos 27 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Light shines brightest in the deepest dark!”<br /> -Jim Butcher

I lose my phone pretty much every other day, and it takes me several hours to find it. Then I have approximately 30 notifications because I have my phone set to tell me the weather every half-hour. The reason I did this is to avoid exactly what happened in this poem. I really enjoyed the poem though. You managed to keep the same feeling of flow through the whole poem, which is something I could never do.

Lydiaq ELITE said...
on Nov. 9 2021 at 8:55 am
Lydiaq ELITE, Somonauk, Illinois
179 articles 54 photos 1026 comments

Favorite Quote:
The universe must be a teenage girl. So much darkness, so many stars.<br /> --me

On Saturdays and Sundays, I almost never get notifications. It's such a new feeling that there should be a new word for it.