by Celeste DeSario
I jolt awake wondering…
Where do the monsters go at night?
Are they hiding in the shadows?
In my closet? Under my bed?
My curtains, tightly drawn—I’m safe.
But… are the monsters still out there?
Lurking? Waiting?
Or are they only in my head?
Biding their time,
They will creep into the hamlets, villages, towns, cities,
Seducing men cloaked in blue, gray, brown uniforms, wearing badges, pointing guns.
Masked.
For whose protection?
Social Media, politicians, distort the truth even as visuals show us snippets of reality,
And now, AI, distorts images using Deep Fakes, making decisions based on values not aligned with ours, well, with values we once held respected, agreed upon.
Is AI listening to our conversations, recording our fears, sharing them…with?
We don’t know. That’s why we should worry.
Those monsters creep into Judicial chambers,
Where we assign fancy Latin terms,
Like Mala Fide—acting in bad faith,
Or Proper ex Parte Communication—Defying justice, the court’s authority and dignity.
Tearing down our laws,
And everything that carefully glues our country together.
Makes us free.
Makes us proud.
Makes us a republic we love.
Scenes crafted in sick, twisted minds play out in our towns, on our screens,
Eventually, in our backyards.
Maybe even our living rooms.
Who is roaming the hallways of our colleges?
Our libraries?
Places we once found refuge for serious thought,
Contemplating futures we understood.
Okay, now you are just listing. Stop being so dramatic.
You are scaring me.
Look carefully. The monsters have infiltrated our schools.
They need to get those kids,
Need to inject them with bigotry and hate.
Remember the song, “You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
So, they teach them.
Yanking books off the shelves that instill dangerous, harmful ideas.
Like tolerance, inclusion, acceptance,
Twisting words and history,
Until we don’t recognize who we once were.
Using Doublespeak, Political euphemisms.
“I am the greatest peacekeeper in the history of the world.”
(Yes, bomb those fishing boats and those on them,
Demonize any country that doesn’t agree with me,
Detain citizens. Call them illegal. I don’t care.
Just do it.
I’ll keep dancing to distract them. Make them laugh. Make them love me.)
They know spectacle distracts us, so,
They organize marches.
Political parades.
Use pennants, colorful flags, music,
Precision marching, a lot of saluting.
Film your leaders from below so they appear all -powerful,
So, they dominate the frame,
And then dominate what lies beyond the frame.
They appear…unstoppable.
But it’s just a trick. A low camera angle. We all know how that works.
See? We can stop them anytime we choose.
So, do we choose now?
Choose now.
Now.
I will fill up a cart from Amazon: that will save me.
Click. Sleep mask. Click. Noise cancelling headphones. Air purifier. Click, click, click.
I will upload a new photo on my Instagram page.
See?
Everything is okay.
There is Nala the Cat,
Wearing a Superman Cape, and a gold crown.
Doug the Pug wearing funny sunglasses and a hat and a Christmas sweater.
Maybe TikTok can save me?
Just upload a new video.
Zach King, we need some of your digital magic,
Your sleight-of-hand.
That’s how it starts. That is also how it ends.
When you ask if there are monsters under the bed,
I assure you,
They do exist.
And when they crawl out,
There is little we can do to get them back under.
Except recognize them.
And it starts with that.
It simply starts with that.
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AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News.
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I jolt awake wondering…
Where do the monsters go at night?
Are they hiding in the shadows?
In my closet? Under my bed?
My curtains, tightly drawn—I’m safe.
But… are the monsters still out there?
Lurking? Waiting?
Or are they only in my head?
Biding their time,
They will creep into the hamlets, villages, towns, cities,
Seducing men cloaked in blue, gray, brown uniforms, wearing badges, pointing guns.
Masked.
For whose protection?
Social Media, politicians, distort the truth even as visuals show us snippets of reality,
And now, AI, distorts images using Deep Fakes, making decisions based on values not aligned with ours, well, with values we once held respected, agreed upon.
Is AI listening to our conversations, recording our fears, sharing them…with?
We don’t know. That’s why we should worry.
Those monsters creep into Judicial chambers,
Where we assign fancy Latin terms,
Like Mala Fide—acting in bad faith,
Or Proper ex Parte Communication—Defying justice, the court’s authority and dignity.
Tearing down our laws,
And everything that carefully glues our country together.
Makes us free.
Makes us proud.
Makes us a republic we love.
Scenes crafted in sick, twisted minds play out in our towns, on our screens,
Eventually, in our backyards.
Maybe even our living rooms.
Who is roaming the hallways of our colleges?
Our libraries?
Places we once found refuge for serious thought,
Contemplating futures we understood.
Okay, now you are just listing. Stop being so dramatic.
You are scaring me.
Look carefully. The monsters have infiltrated our schools.
They need to get those kids,
Need to inject them with bigotry and hate.
Remember the song, “You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
So, they teach them.
Yanking books off the shelves that instill dangerous, harmful ideas.
Like tolerance, inclusion, acceptance,
Twisting words and history,
Until we don’t recognize who we once were.
Using Doublespeak, Political euphemisms.
“I am the greatest peacekeeper in the history of the world.”
(Yes, bomb those fishing boats and those on them,
Demonize any country that doesn’t agree with me,
Detain citizens. Call them illegal. I don’t care.
Just do it.
I’ll keep dancing to distract them. Make them laugh. Make them love me.)
They know spectacle distracts us, so,
They organize marches.
Political parades.
Use pennants, colorful flags, music,
Precision marching, a lot of saluting.
Film your leaders from below so they appear all -powerful,
So, they dominate the frame,
And then dominate what lies beyond the frame.
They appear…unstoppable.
But it’s just a trick. A low camera angle. We all know how that works.
See? We can stop them anytime we choose.
So, do we choose now?
Choose now.
Now.
I will fill up a cart from Amazon: that will save me.
Click. Sleep mask. Click. Noise cancelling headphones. Air purifier. Click, click, click.
I will upload a new photo on my Instagram page.
See?
Everything is okay.
There is Nala the Cat,
Wearing a Superman Cape, and a gold crown.
Doug the Pug wearing funny sunglasses and a hat and a Christmas sweater.
Maybe TikTok can save me?
Just upload a new video.
Zach King, we need some of your digital magic,
Your sleight-of-hand.
That’s how it starts. That is also how it ends.
When you ask if there are monsters under the bed,
I assure you,
They do exist.
And when they crawl out,
There is little we can do to get them back under.
Except recognize them.
And it starts with that.
It simply starts with that.
Celeste DeSario is an award-winning educator and former tenured professor of Literature and Writing at Suffolk County Community College. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and a National Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas. After years of teaching the greats, she has stepped out of the classroom to craft her own worlds of impossible choices.
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