Ctrl+X

I'm surprised at how often people copy
and paste

and then go back to delete what they copied

rather than just

cutting it
(thus copying and deleting it at the same time)

and then pasting it

to save time.

Is there some technology-trust issue here,
knowing that if the robots will eventually rebel
(as is so aptly depicted in so many tales),
surely they must be out to get our
resumes, recipes, essays, and emails
in a humble prelude to world domination?

Or perhaps this practice is proof that
the infant's confusion about object permanence
persists even in adolescents
(digital natives though they be)
and on to bewildered adults
squinting askance at keys and screen?

Or is it the afterlife we're concerned about?
Unsure about our continuation
in a different part of this cosmically documented story
after our ultimate deletion,
we sloppily copy and paste ourselves on as many
photo albums, headstones, lives,
label-makered miscellany,
(and even libraries or LLCs)
as possible before being
cut
unprepared,
just to make sure we're not accidentally lost forever
if somehow
the code or the keys fail
and we're left half-beamed-up,
a pleiotaxy of pixels
floating forever betwixt our home planet
and some eternal Enterprise,
Scotty lamenting
"I cannae change the laws of physics!"
as he hits, over and over,
Ctrl+Z.

The Child Consent Form

Now,
we post pictures of our kids
on social media
in awkward moments and weird poses
narrating their eccentricities
without acquiring any sort of
child consent form
or including an eventual avenue
for them to erase forever
whatever content they don't approve of.

Perhaps,
karma thus dictates
that one day when we are drooling all over ourselves
and have larger diapers of our own to be changed,
recompense will come
as they post videos of us rambling on about
Ace of Base,
Super Nintendo,

or pogs,

our faces dumbstruck in just as much awe and confusion
about the technology in their hands
as they had about the ones in ours.

Though I guess it's more likely
the camera will be in their eyes,
and the memory storage behind the ear lobe,
the microphone on a cheek -
giving a whole new meaning to
Facebook.