More by Jason Dong

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The child expected something more.

Holding a plastic figurine, 

staring, wondering if

a trophy was what it was all for.

Two thousand hours and counting

And counting and counting and

A plastic figurine,

Was all it was for.


Treading through a sea of

empty metal chairs,

certificate in hand

Was this all it was for?

Two hundred loud fights on

black and white notes

But a deafening silence

Was all it was for.


Monotonous years through virtual plains

were led by indulgent RGB mice.

And though twenty months ago,

you would find them otherwise;

their mind became a pixel hourglass

Turning, and turning,

and so full of sand.


but a pattern through time only

Flips itself over; and

Spends so much energy

on nothing at all. So

mouse in hand, treading virtual sands,

tasked with balancing escapism and reality

The child expected something more.