by Cailín Frankland
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| Sila’s TikTok |
today
a little girl
begged me
for her life.
she wore a faded Lightning McQueen t-shirt,
a fluffy fuchsia headband holding back
her tangled hair. wide-eyed, empty-bellied,
maybe three years old. straining her little vocal cords
to shout over sirens, a sea of rubble and tent walls
around her.
i gave her
thirty seconds and twenty-five pounds,
a repost and comment: something
about Sabrina Carpenter and Dubai chocolate.
for the algorithm.
on i scrolled.
Cailín Frankland (she/they) is a British-American writer and public health professional based in Baltimore, Maryland. Their cultural criticism, poetry, flash fiction, and short fiction have been featured in numerous print and online publications. They live with their spouse, two old lady cats, a rotating cast of foster animals, and a 70-pound pitbull affectionately known as Baby. You can find them on X as @cailin_sm.
