keyboard warrior

he was jolted awake by a pang of
pain in his side

Like the devil stabbed its fingers
into his liver

It was cold and hot in the same time

He couldn’t stand
could hardly breathe

His eyes went big into the darkness
and he looked around
and saw that the time
was 04:17 in the morning
and he was still hunched over his
improvised desk with that
cheap, second-hand laptop before him
in standby

So nothing new
he’d fallen asleep again while
battling the keys,
fighting to come up with the immortal story
he’d promised

‘Shit!’ he thought. ‘To whom did I even
promise it?’

But the answer was all too
obvious. ‘Myself… I’ve to get out of
this closet apartment one day.’

He looked to his right
where his six-year-old daughter was sleeping
in the old sleeping bag. She appeared to
be having another one of those
fever dreams
that would make her cry all day because
of the ‘scissor spiders that sawed
fingers and legs together’

Hell, but they were still
a bit better than
the dreams of mother
who won’t be around by the time she
woke up

He breathed deep and
slow
and the pain in his side calmed some

He was also terribly hungry
and it felt like
it affected his vision. Made it blurry

There was only
one cure for
all of this

He resumed his battle with the
keys

Hoping to all the gods that the damned
laptop won’t break again

“Just a few more
chapters,”
he whispered as he swallowed
bitter saliva

Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "keyboard warrior"!

Check it out HERE!

Thank you!