Virtual Murder Poem by Steffi Webster

Death? Oh that's easy
I kill every day
Just switch on the computer
And I'm off and away
Joystick at the ready
One squeeze of my finger
A bang through the speakers
The deaths do not linger
But forget computer games
The real thing should be good
To feel cold metal in your hand
To hear the splash of blood
But now I see their fear
Desperation multiplied
In my computer game
Young children never cried
Nor did I see the bullet
Wipe the life from their bright eyes
Nor did I expect to see
The shock or the surprise
That awful hollow, final thump
As I never did hear
The characters within my games
Never showed me fear
That swift silent halting
Of their gasping night air breath
This is unexpected
I thought I'd like their death
But now where is the message?
That welcome flashing light?
To say I'd won the level
All that's here is night
I thought that I would love this
But they could not simulate
The guilty sickness in me
And now it is too late
I pulled upon the trigger
Barely twitched my finger
But this is no computer game
And the deaths will linger