Digital Exclusion

1. Old and grey, I must still pay my bills,
   The old ways are gone, the bridges burned,
   I try to enter my name and password, on
   Keys a quarter the size of my fingertips,
   I press an 'm' and 'bnm' appears,
   Which quickly transmute into asterisks.
   Another attempt and another until,
   The app decides I'm an imposter,
   And promptly locks me out.

2. Finally I break into this impervious app,
   To pay for my basics to avoid a big fine,
   But how to avoid mistyping the numbers,
   Jetting who knows how much of my money,
   To who knows who at who knows where?
   Terms & Conditions say the risk is all mine.
   Where it has gone the bank will not say,
   Getting it back means a process of law,
   The years pass by as the case drags on.

3. The password generator ceases to function,
   I become locked out of my bank account,
   Over 9,000 km from my nearest branch,
   Can't make international calls on my phone,
   And the bank has no email, in this day and age!
   They tell me to install an incomprehensible app,
   which proves to be incompatible with my phone,
   So the only escape from this insecure hell,
   Is to send them a letter via DHL!

4. Stopped in the street by muggers with guns,
   Underage daemons with conscience erased,
   Demanding I transfer my savings to them,
   But what if I won't, can't or have no phone?
   Three shots to the stomach's the topical norm,
   Red and blue lights, the muggers are gone.
   But banking by smartphone's a danger to life,
   Notwithstanding, the bankers don't care,
   After all, life isn't money.

5. Once my eyes dim so I can't read my phone,
   My fingers too jittery to enter the figures,
   I'll no longer have this Mark of the Beast,
   Through which to buy my necessities of life.
   I will have no recourse in this digital age,
   To proffer my cash, my cheque or my card.
   The letter of debt, the court and the Judge,
   Will he annul and my fear assuage?
   I don't know: It'll depend on his age.

6. Thus I'm excluded but that's no surprise,
   The digital world simply follows the real,
   The world that is real is exactly the same,
   Governed by laws that divide and exclude,
   those that don't profit from those that do,
   those without influence from those that have,
   those that don't matter from those that do,
   those that are old from those that are young.
   Time to die and remain unsung.

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© 25 August 2022 Robert John Morton | see also: user interfaces | smartphone