HICS
(1997. HICS: Hero In CyberSpace – redefining the self-image of all self-professed hicks*)
I curse the daylight and fight to remain
awake while others are doing the RL
thing. Give me the night and a fast, tight line
to my provider. A sharp, swift on-ramp
to the world wide web. I am a cybermage,
an electronic punk, a chat room hero
saving the desperate from the unkind
– my only claim to fame! Yet I function!
I’m free! Alive… and yet… I rot away
each night in front a poorly made CRT
absorbing radiation till my eyes
hurt in my skull and my stomach feels sick
from the dull roar of artificially
induced migraine. Hour by hour it kills me
slowly, yet I cannot face that day to
day subtle struggle with RL people….
I’d die even quicker! A hopeless moron,
a scarecrow, stick insect, unable to speak…
A sallow coward that falters and trembles
in the face of physical and
psychological confrontation,
trembling pathetically as
others take cover for fear of being
hit by my shrapnel – little pieces of
me – like a turd gone to pieces at the
slightest poke with a stick – so lacking in back
bone or substance…. I can’t even remain
solid enough to hit ‘the fan’…. But
in E-Space… I can soar! and fly!
and race and dance and shine and be a Hero, and
reach out… and touch someone… At the end of
the day I sleep, sick in the gut, thoughts numb
with headache pain, yet feeling somehow, good.
- A hick (pl. hicks) is an unsophisticated, or poorly educated moron, usually of remote, or rural, origin.
About The Author
Tsc
A Gippsland lad that grew up in The Central Highlands, the Big Smoke, and on The Island, in The Lakes. Went abroad to China, Vietnam, Germany, with a few side visits along the way. Currently based in China.