Faceless (or - my first attempt at free verse poetry, my thoughts on the internet's impact on society, wordsmithing, and spacing)

The Faceless

by Patrick Wood

What happens when people lose their faces?
Digital avatars.
Pixelated features.
Blank slates.
Anonymity.

If a fist hits a head but there's no face to show bruises,
Is anyone hurt?


What happens when people lose their faces?
Reckless rage.
Foundationless fury.
Pointless prosecution.
Erroneous excuses.
Pompous personalities.
Utterly unfiltered and ubiquitous untruths.

If a lie is told but no one's lips moved,
Is anyone wrong?


What happens when people lose their faces?
We pave intellectual highways with life, liberty, and common decency.
Spelling, vocabulary, and consideration of our fellow man drown with
     yesterday's lunch.
People become animals.
Neighbors become pets.
Roles are forgotten.
Natural order is replaced with the cacophonous din of subjective morality
     and debased purpose.

If a man wanders off alone into the masses and by doing so loses his face,
     His identity,
     His dignity,
     His humanity,
Is he still a man?


Did he don a mask to cover up the lines, wrinkles, grimace, sweat, blood, and soul
     that prove he is alive?
Or did he tear off the mask with its lines, wrinkles, grimace, sweat, blood, and soul
     to prove he never was?

What happens when people lose their faces?
Thoughts are reduced to "yes" and "no."
Actions are reduced to tapping fingers.
Communication is reduced to "comments."
Repercussions are reduced to cheap pastries.
Souls are replaced with
     line
          upon line
               of code

What happens when men become things,
And things become gods,
And gods become nothing,
And nothing is forbidden?


If a person loses their life to the world around them,
Dies
Due to torment, abuse, and unseemly realities,
But has no face...

Does anyone care?

What happens when people lose their faces?