Search This Blog

20140223

Spilled Milk (poem)(satire)

Every morning I get up
and check my mobile phone
to see what's up.
No time to cry about being alone,
no crime to drink a cup
of coconut milk.

Your voice on voice on I.P.
may be as smooth as silk
but no matter what you say,
through your lies I can see
and I won't meet you today.

Every morning I got up
and check my mobile phone
And see what's up.
No time to cry about being alone,
no crime to hit that cup.
Cry over spilled milk.

You enjoyed our time on chat;
I've no time for your ilk.
You worsened my misery.
In addition to that,
You ruined my privacy.

From now on, on all my mornings
I check my mobile phone
For happenings.
No time to cry about being alone,
no crime to block your pings
And mute all your ilk.

I may be lonely now but
Won't cry over spilled milk
Because I have dealt with you.
You are a silly nut
And I am so done with you.

Now, it seems on all my  mornings,
I check my mobile phone
For happenings.
No time to cry; I love being alone!
For a dime the singer sings
A song about spilled milk.


If this sounds repetitive, that's because I chose a rhyming scheme and made each stanza have a similar number of syllables per line.

In the case of this poem, it is lyrical, and consists of 7 stanzas, of which the stanzas 1, 3, 5 and 7 are sexains consisting of 6 lines with lengths of 8, 6 4, 10, 6 and 5 feet while stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are quintains consisting of 5 lines with lengths of 7, 6, 7, 6 and 7 feet.

Each sexain is a similar-sounding six line refrain which is paired with a quintain to form a stanziani with a rhyming scheme of ABABACDCEDE.

Three stanzianis are concluded with a sexain similar to the previous sexain, but are similar to the first two, all four of which show a timeline that evolves from checking text messages on a telephone to checking "happenings" which is a word I chose to represent the automated text messages get from social media such as Twitter via SMS.

By writing the poem in this way I hoped to create the impression that the narrator is Jane, who had originally been on a social media app such as Twitter. After the relationship end, she had chosen the slightly passive SMS/MMS text service. Of course, that passivity is due to the fact that texting requires more effort and time to reply to text messages than a Twitter app does. While the app is more real-time than text messaging, texting means she takes more time to response to a message.

This it is assumed that John, who texted her, might also be on a social media app on a smartphone.

Since there is a hint that he violated her privacy in some way, yet she only heard his voice, it's likely she might have been convinced through subliminal subversion into giving him compromising pictures of herself and later, using a video chat app, a video of a similar nature.

When the narrator declares "I won't meet with you", she may have found evidence online that he had shared her pictures and posted the video online. This is confirmed by her stating that he "enjoyed our time on chat", which implies that she didn't, due to the one-sidedness of the relationship.

Regarding the spilled milk meme, Jane realized that since John probably used a pseudonym online, it would be hard for the police to track him down since the two have never met. So she feels that there is no use "crying over spilled milk."

In one legal scenario, John might be charged with "manufacturing pornography" since she was conned into revealing herself to an online stranger. However Jane is also liable as "model".

Jane would have to prove that he groomed her until she was compliant with his demand of a few compromising pictures and a video. This would require a text message trail in the form of a chat app like Jabber which has an option to archive a chat session with another person.

Turning on this feature could provide security when that nice online friend turns out to be another online predator. Having an archived history of internet chat might seem a nuisance to privacy advocate but it keeps you honest when considering the question, "What would my family think of me if they found out what I had been up to from mainstream media?"

A few people who never give that question more than a passing thought are now gone, victims of online bullying. Other women have to live with the fact that their videos are online on porn sites, often for free. Very few of them have the financial resources to get those videos pulled from those sites.

If there was a bill proposed that made the willful intent to groom a young woman to the point of being willing to share a compromising picture and/or video with the perpetrator a crime, then I would endorse it. However, our federal government in Canada has proposed an anti-bullying bill which actually contains a failed bill rewritten to make it easier for Canada's spy agency (CSEC) to spy on Canadians easier than it is now.

Eventually that bill will fall but hopefully the anti-bullying bill will pass since it will do much to stop online bullying.

However, making the online grooming of another person with the intent to receive compromising pictures and videos of that person naked a crime is going to take a long time mainly because often the victim does not have an archive history of chats with the perpetrator. I really hope the anti-bullying bill includes this in legalese clearly to make online grooming illegal.

Despite the fact that Canadian politicians are hip to social media, Canada has yet to introduce cyberstalking legislation. So it mystifies me why they would pair the anti-bullying legislation with a cybersecurity bill that gives police and its spy agency more power to spy on Canadian citizens. Though, the cybersecurity bill could put a chill on cyberstalking and prevent the roots of cyberbullying.

Of course, with the advent of smartphone apps like Textsecure and Redphone, it not only could make intimate conversations more secure but make it difficult to maintain an evidence trail when used. Most phone and texting apps do have this feature.

Most people who neglect to use them do not of their value in keeping them safe. Instead, they cite privacy concerns as an excuse for not recording the chat.

Instead,

References:

Cyberbullying - Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_bullying#Canada

Cyberstalking legislation - Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking_legislation

New cyberbullying law had larger agenda, expands police powers - CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-cyberbullying-law-has-larger-agenda-expands-police-powers-1.243479

Before Amanda Todd's suicide, the RCMP were repeatedly told of blackmailer's attempts:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/amanda-todd-suicide-rcmp-repeatedly-told-of-blackmailer-s-attempts-1.2427097

No comments: