Troll Country

We are well off the map right now,
Far beyond the vigil of the compass,
The epitome of inhospitability,
Stalked by blizzards and hungry things,
There is no day and night,
Only biting ivory,
Torrential cold thorns from an empty sky,

Upon the alpine fields of snow,
Hemming us in like trapped seals,
Lay countless bones of victims both human and livestock,
Fodder for maws that know no sating,
And footprints of collosal proportion,
We still hear the quakes,
Though that too could be our throes of fear,

There are horrid things here,
Primeval beings of feral glamour,
Walking titans of dank fur and sinew,
Possessed of hunger no natural thing should,
Unabated by the encroaching white tempest,
Weathering it forlornly in their hunt,
Their hunt for us,

And as the roof of our shelter is ripped skyward,
We know the trolls have found us,
The next moment will be all screams and teeth.

Keyboard Warrior

I see you in virtual space,
Wearing your mask of a monitor,
A maginot line for your real life ego,
You think yourself a technomancer,
A hacker and revolutionary coder,
Yet in real life you’re merely a follower,

You’re not alone in this realm of 0’s and 1’s,
Adherent to a collective of trolls,
Shadow friends,
Allies purely in pixels,
But they are a fickle lot,
How long before they cancel you?

A crusade against good taste,
No endgame in sight,
Getting your jollies from tearing others down,
Spewing bile for its own sake,
Caps lock in place of reason,
Your keyboard acting as blunt scalpel,

But what if that blade were turned on you?
Are you so brave in person?
Can the follower hold his own?
Do you truly hold the ideals of that base collective?
When you’re the next target for their games,
Will the keyboard protect you too?