A Million Wishes Poem by rhitwick mookherjee

Once upon a time, when
We were just a child,
Life used to be simple
But imaginations ran wild.

Once in a year, then,
On my birth day,
Only a handful of friends
Would ever care to say,
"Wish u a happy bday! "

They were only a handful
They were really very few,
They were only those,
Whom I very well knew.

Never did I bother then,
To keep a count of them.
It was never a ladder
For rising to instant fame!

What mattered to me most
Was how I spent my day.
Encircled by my small group,
In the centre, happy and gay.

Then, at night, as I lay in bed,
Content and full of joy.
The day carved out a sweet memory
For me, forever to enjoy.

But now I am all grown up
And live in the digital age.
Life remains forever encircled
By Twitter, WhatsApp and FB page.

The world has turned truly
Into one huge global village
Virtual reality is now the real thing
And social media such a rage.

More people remember my bday now,
Than they ever did in the past.
They all remember to wish me,
And I have such a "virtual" blast.

Throught the day I keep on checking,
The count of wishes and like.
And everytime I see it rising
I get a digital spike.

Then in the night, as I lie in bed
And reflect upon the day.
Like in the past I try to carve out
A memory for me to take away.

Only then I realise, to my horror
There is nothing atall to take.
All I have got are wishes and like
And a lot of them could be fake.

There were no friends to play along
No one to call my own.
The entire day simply passed away
With me, staring at my fone.

Now, I would trade, a million likes
On any given day.
Just to get my "real" friends back
To hold my hand and stay.

But Alas! all I get are smiling faces,
Staring through the FB page,
Binding us and enslaving us,
Forever, in the Digital Cage