SCRATCHES ON THE WALL
OF THE FACEBOOK JAIL
Imprisoned for offending you
With a Google image
I see live people
Writing and chatting
Through this glass cell wall.
I try to write
But you cannot see me
I try to protest
But FB cannot hear me
The coffin is sealed
For three days
like the moon
I have gone dark
_________________
The cruel insensitive
Facebook net
Snatches you off the street
For an off hand word
Or irreverent picture
Your neck rests
In the guillotine’s collar
At any moment
By mere whim
The blade can fall
Facebook Lives Matter
____________________
The ice is thin
And cracking
Every word now
Can be a death sentence
My words use to fly free
Now they stutter
And wonder
Will this offend?
_____________
When did Facebook
Become a Puritan?
When did speech
Become censored?
Like any fundamentalist
The Facebook Censor
Has no appreciation
Of irony
Words taken out of context
Have their reference
On a list of banned items
And not their intended use
The Bible is now literal
And all metaphor is lost
God is dead!
____________
Labeled a Sex Devient
For posting a woman
With a bondage mask
I protest
I am not the picture
On the box
__________
Ironically
The bondage mask
That offended you
Has put me in bondage
And gagged my speech
You gave the image
Flesh and blood
Mine!
_____________
The shock
Of being thrown in jail
Was my 9/11
This cannot be happening!
___________
The streets of Facebook
Are now patrolled
By Correctness Police
If you fit their profile
They will drag you off
In silent screams
Your tongue cut off
_________
I will not be silent
I will not be censored
And gagged
I will not be held
In bondage
If only one finger remains
I will speak
__________
I haven’t been in Facebook jail, but I am not allowed to advertise certain blog posts for the oddest variety of reasons. Apparently punctuation such as quotation marks, colons, and ampersands in certain order or number can block me from advertising a blog post from my page. I also cannot advertise anything with a social or political commentary, until I go through a lengthy process that includes giving FB extensive information. The notion is to confirm my identity. But the effect is a massive intrusion of my privacy. I have yet to complete the complicated process. As to irony or satire, Facebook does not recognize this at all as protected speech. There is a popular video meme that uses a scene from the German film Downfall that depicts Adolf Hitler screaming at his generals in his Berlin bunker, while a crowd gathers outside the room to listen in horror. The scene has been captioned thousands of times as “Hitler Reacts to…” And has been used for everything including major league sports draft picks. But Facebook does not recognize the use of a film depicting the last days of Adolf Hitler, featuring award winning performances, direction, cinematography, etc to simply use the intense shouting as a joke. Hitler himself is clearly depicted as irrational, foolish, and a raving maniac who refuses to face fact in the clip, and the actor who portrayed Adolf Hitler has expressed flattery over the use of his performance. And yet the same system allows Breitbart, which has an actual and clear white supremacist bent to publish their extremist views as “news.” It’s disturbing. I know of folks who have been banned for using terms such as “redneck,” “cracker,” and “poor white trash” because those words are weighed equally with terms such as the N-word. And yet, I have never seen anyone land in FB jail for using words such as bitch, pussy, etc. Or even posting degrading images of women, such as a picture of Hillary Clinton that has been altered to make it look as if she is performing fellatio. Appears that FB still considers misogyny acceptable, but symbolic, satirical, or ironic speech are verboten.