Ode to Equity

Dear Mr. Billionaire

My name is Ruby and in your country I am still a minor.

Like your daughter or even your granddaughter. I’d like you to think hard on the fact that I am a child.

Bill,

I can call you Bill, right?*

A nickname is incoming, so unless you'd prefer a name that exists with implications attached

We will be on a first name basis.

It is only fair, as I know you’ve been tracking me since I was a pre-pubescent-teen.

*You do not get a choice in this; I am being nice.

Billy

I've DMed you a photo of me right now. And no, it's not a nude.

In the next, you'll see me when I was 8. Look closely. The 2016 trend is irrelevant.

Do you remember that year? When your income picked up because second by second

The world became entrapped with that little gambling game you invented.

How interesting to notice that there are little wires attached to your fingers

Pumping political propaganda

And hatespeech, slurs and antisemitism

Directly into my brain.

Billy, I think you’re quite similar to a vampire; but less charming I will say.

Sorry, the beauty standards are just relentless now that Gen Alpha’s gone viral and TikTok has been banned.

You’re a detestable, rich predator

Because the world knows you groomed young girls on Epstein Island

And use your platforms to indoctrinate them to see starving themselves as a survival tactic

So a pedophile online doesn’t call them fat.

Your databases, The Algorithm

They line your pockets with more money than the Amazon rainforest and all its stories could print in a century.

And you have the God-given privilege to live every day not giving a single flying fuck.

Bill

I find it funny how you say it is out of your control

We can pass it off as the fault of The Algorithm, of code written by human slaves serving the pyramid scheme we've been genetically modified to follow without a second thought...

But I think that’s too similar to other things I’ve heard before.

It wasn’t Hitler, it was the Nazis.

It’s not Trump, it’s the Republicans.

It’s not you, it’s the rest of us, our blunder

For wasting away, hooked on the gateway drugs.

Keep it PG, Billy, or you’ll have lawsuits on your hands.

But don’t worry about the uniformed killers on the streets

Or the latest spout of public file access!

We’ll forget as soon as the Olympics are on

That dictators fight countries’ pledges of unity

With ammunition.

That’s right!

Ukraine won’t be saved

Because Russia turned the treaties into little fires

That the UN and EU will say were lit in solidarity…

Genocide, we'll whisper in awe, while the channels flash by like people's lives against rounds and rounds of intergenerational, international violence.

All now a part of daily fucking life.

Billy B Billionaire

AI is not the future,

But I asked ChatGPT to look again at the things that have changed between the day you first indulged in Judas' hunger for violence

In the Holy Lands

And today's news headline.

I think most importantly,

The crown that skewed as you were sent to jail

Is becoming vicious and thorned.

You'll be executed soon;

And if the inner circle serves you,

The ones who are in the firing line

Will not give up so easily.

Like their own geopolitical networks

Those platforms make the noise inescapable

For everyone privileged on this Earth...

So next time that you check your DMs, Mr Billionaire,

Notice how there is no currency involved in the study of human dignity.

......

(Word Count: 604)

Author's Note

Firstly, thank you for reading!

Secondly, This is an entry to Rock's EDGY challenge - I loved writing for this one - the guidelines really got me thinking.

A last little note: If you know me, then you know that rhyme is very rare. This time it came naturally so I hope Rock will still count this as free verse.

Anyway, I've been on-and-off from Vocal (trying to update those pinned stories for variety), so this little snippet of writing should suffice for the next little bit. Hopefully until publishing something I've written onto Vocal feels right.

Good luck to all the challenge participants and thank you again for reading!

- Red :)