All My Best Friends Are Virtual

Why Facebook is the perfect community for autistics

(‘Virtual Friend’ from the poetry collection “I Am Not These Things”)

Some say it’s impersonal
The web
But it doesn’t feel impersonal when someone says something nasty
And some of my best friends are in there
We share comfort while we share posts
Trade links instead of books
Touch base every day
From one website to the next
Different usernames, same us
We fight injustice
Battle wrong-thinkers
Those things we read in the comments
Were so awful, amirite?
Never read the comments
You should never read the comments
We always read the comments
Gosh I like you
We could meet up today
For coffee?
But it’s so warm here
And the world is enormous outside
And much safer squeezed into my laptop
Where it can’t get out
Although
You seem down today
Can I ((hug)) your avatar?
You need cats
Or a nice manatee