Nan-e, this is a message
To say: I love you.
With mum busy
You make me
Content. Wake me
With music
Speak Latin
At breakfast
Pull lessons from clouds
Chart progress.
You,
Set food reminders
Set pill reminders
Nan-e,
Count my steps
Guard me from Germs
and Conditions;
Save my
Cookies, read
Bed-time stories
Over speakers
At night; I imagine
The next episodes
Of my favourite shows
Without your parental
Controls.
Nan-e, remember
When I asked,
“What is porn?”
I’d heard it at school.
You threw up
An egg-timer
The longest you’d taken,
Dropped an image
Of an old animal
Called Rhino, said
It was dead skin and hair
Attracting sad people.
I didn’t ask to see again
Wide holes on poor creatures,
Parts missing.
Nan-e,
I can’t wait for my birthday
The big One Zero.
Print my friend’s cake
Nan-e,
New theme the house
A YouTuber in every
Corner, watching us play.
I’d like dad there too.
Nan-e,
Scroll dad’s profiles on the wall,
A video of the videos of his life.
Nan-e,
Set a time-limit, three minutes
I won’t get lost in his pictures.
Nan-e,
Where’s mummy?
Two minutes away, ok.
Nan-e,
In one minute,
Switch off screen.
Lee Mackenzie is a writer and poet from Redditch, Worcestershire, UK. His poems have been published in the New European, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Coast to Coast to Coast and Dempsey and Windle. He lives in Aarhus, Denmark and is currently working on interdisciplinary projects combining music, visual arts and poetry. Find him on Twitter: @leemackenzie14.