Exsanguination

Julie Kinninmont

It’s these new laptops
They said
Totally sustainable! Amazing!
They don’t run off electricity
They run off your blood
I’m surprised you’re surprised
Everyone is using them!
You don’t have to consent of course
I just notice your appraisal is coming up in two weeks
It’d be hard to work without a laptop, eh hahahaha

And so
You arrive at work
Plug your laptop in
Not to the wall
But where your hand touches the mouse
There’s a connection
Directly into your artery
Feeding into your bloodstream

The laptop is sluggish to start
Not enough juice
You feel sluggish, too
Sucking at your coffee cup
For energy
Slurping the liquid through the little mouthpiece
Draining the last drops
The laptop shudders to life
Now we’re flowing!

Spreadsheets! Emails!
Caffeine
SuckingSlurpingDraining
Your blood
Timesheets! Filing!
Sucking
Data entry
Caffeine
Slurping
More emails
Draining
Your blood
Draining your blood

It’s been hours
You feel light-headed, heavy-lidded
For a moment you disconnect from the laptop
The screen goes to black
Energy saving mode
You see your face reflected
Pale, bluish, wan
For a moment you shut your eyes
The world goes to black
Energy saving mode

The laptop bleeps
Alert! Low power!
Watch out, they say
You don’t want your laptop to die hahahaha
So you plug it back in

Julie Kinninmont (@_jules_writes_) is a queer British writer who has survived being a door-to-door fundraiser, shelf stacker and data entry robot and now loves to write about life, mental health, identity, relationships and being human. She is sustained in the workplace by tea and office based memes.