A Poem Written After Filtering My Facebook Friend List



The average human being’s not supposed
To know this many people and to have
This many memories. A beach suffused
With sand will drown the sea. Each face echoes
A past unthought but lived so long ago;
Lifetimes and yet, I’m only thirty, yet
I’ve died, reborn and died again. What face
Stares back at me, window or glass I see?
Too many trees make paths un-walkable.
So many selves make up the rings that round
My trunk can barely hold. I grab the axe
And chop. Well, try. Then stall. My head’s chock-full
Of lives that ended but the credits failed
To roll. Instead it simply rolled on from
One story to the next. No rest. And now,
Sat here, before the traces left of those
Lives lived, I feel them, each to each, echo
And build like waterfalls to crash upon
My head, now shoved below the surface. Gasp
For breath. Hands flail. Neck cranes to reach for air
And yet a part of me struggles softly;
Neck bent, hands limp, and feet a bit too stiff.
The fading surface giving way to this:
A simple thought that sings: I’ve lived too long.





Poetry by Sameen The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 17 times
Written on 2026-07-06 at 10:30

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jim The PoetBay support member heart!
I had a persistent, intrusive, thought as I read:

Milton.
2026-07-06


Melinda K Zarate The PoetBay support member heart!
Ditto to what Allen wrote.

This part stood out to me: Too many trees make paths un-walkable. So many selves make up the rings that round
My trunk can barely hold.

Based on the title I imagined a forest of FB friends and you, the writer, walking through them, scrolling, adjusting your comments to suit their posts. Perhaps not as you intended but my interpretation and it really made me think.
2026-07-06


Griffonner The PoetBay support member heart!
Oh my gosh! It is a very thought provoking poem you have written - in the first person, which leads me to conceive this state of thinking is the result of the poet's sensitivity without protection. We can see and sense these things, the heaviness of our and other's lives, but we must retain our central core of 'self protection'. Close the aura and allow yourself to be refueled. We are each part of this Universe, but are also unique stars, burning bright into the darkness. We cannot continue to burn unless we ourselves are fueled and allow/take the time to be quiet in ourselves and, to use an age old adage, 'love ourselves'. I hope your day ends with you thinking and feeling more positively. Blessings, Allen
2026-07-06