Oblivion

Yilin Wang

Oblivion

No need for painkillers: we have found
a faster way to induce anesthesia.

We build shrines to cyber gods in exchange
for the power to keyboard our destiny.

Copy clones in RPGs and chat rooms, press
buttons to pause and reboot, forgetting
that flesh bleeds and bones break so easily.

Exchange vows with soul-mate avatars, give birth
to yourself with a mouse click, shatter
the screens between hearts and robots.

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Yilin Wang (yilinwang.com) is a creative writer, freelance journalist, and tutor based in Vancouver, Canada. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in publications like Ricepaper, Youthink, Cerebration, Fault Lines Poetry Journal, What If?, and is forthcoming in Bridging the Waters Volume 2. She enjoys playing with words, leading alternative lives as literary characters, and traveling around the world.