The Revolution Will Not Be Zoomed

The Revolution Will Not Be Zoomed

Stay home, but don’t stay home, sis.
Don’t plug in, turn on and drop in.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
The revolution will not be about how your hair looks onscreen.
The revolution will not be about your carefully-chosen background.
The revolution will not happen in the chat box.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
You will be able to screenshot the suffering of your sistas and brothas.
You will not be able to mute the sound of screaming birds.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
The revolution will not be in presenter mode.
The revolution will not be a think tank.
The revolution will not give your selfie sex appeal.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
You will not be able to pixelate your personal freedoms.
You will not concern yourself with battery power or bandwidth.
There will be no option to add a brown-skinned emoji of clapping hands.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
The revolution will not wait for the NBN.
The revolution will not be subscription-based.
The revolution will not be owned by a communications empire.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
The revolution will not be scrolled.
The revolution will not be recorded and posted across platforms.
The revolution will not be streamed live from your bedroom.
The revolution will not be zoomed.
Don’t stay home, sis, get out.
The zoom will not be revolutionised.
The revolution will be ours.
The revolution will be free.

Author: Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (south east Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry, Comfort Food, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and highly commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Throat, Ellen’s highly anticipated second poetry collection, is out now. View all posts by Ellen van Neerven