"The Facebook Sonnet" by Sherman Alexie

Welcome to the endless high-school

Reunion. Welcome to past friends

And lovers, however kind or cruel.

Let's undervalue and unmend

The present. Why can't we pretend

Every stage of life is the same?

Let's exhume, resume, and extend

Childhood. Let's all play the games

That occupy the young. Let fame

And shame intertwine. Let one's search

For God become public domain.

Let church.com become our church.

Let's sign up, sign in, and confess

Here at the altar of loneliness.


*Reprinted from The New Yorker, May 16, 2011.
Sherman Alexie is a writer of poems and stories.
His most recently-published works are Face and War Dances.