To learn the ABC’s,
at least to learn them all with ease,
demands a kind of mind
now growing rare in humankind.
With thoughts now fossilized,
and eyes and minds all colonized
by cells’ and tablets’ spells,
most children huddle in their shells.
Once words become extinct,
how will our lives and minds be linked?
Emojis may seem fun
until we see the world they’ve spun.
Once simplified, that world,
now clipped and stripped, all curled and furled,
will make us think, “That’s all.”
And, once again, will Adam fall.
Maurice O’Sullivan, a former teamster, jail guard and pub owner, found a way to combine those skills as an award-winning teacher, editor, columnist, and film maker who lives in Orlando, Florida. His most recent book, Have You Not Hard of Floryda, surveys 300 years of Florida’s colonial literature. www.MauriceOSullivan.com