By Irene Jin
8th grade, Guy B. Phillips Middle School, NC

With lines from “Who’s Watching? How Governments Used the Pandemic to Normalize Surveillance” by Victoria Kim, a Pulitzer Center reporting project

He was born in Busan of the future
What was once sprawling fields of scallions
Now rambling power lines and internet cables.

Hesitant signatures on dotted lines
Meant inky promises to raise a child alongside
Robots, renewable energy, sci-fi now reality.

In his room, a boy sleeps soundly,
Blind to the eyes boring into his back,
The ears listening to every breath he takes.

His mother giggles at a video on her phone.
Unbeknownst to her, a man stares back at her crescent moon eyes
On the other side of the screen.

Every night when she tucks
Her beloved little boy in bed,
A camera blinks red and her lullabies are no longer
A special song between a mother and her baby.

Embrace the future, embrace knowing that
Their blood pressure, blood count, cholesterol levels,
The exact times they enter and exit their front door,
Their favorite songs, the way their eyes crinkle when they smile,
Every wrinkle and mark on their faces
Will all be noted and memorized.

Nothing is ephemeral in a smart-city, after all.

Living rooms draped with cables and outlets,
Adorned with glowing buttons and switches
Too complicated to understand but too convenient to let go of.

He was born in Busan of the future
What was once sprawling fields of scallions
Now rambling power lines and internet cables,

A sci-fi society dotted with human figures.

The scrawled signatures loom over them, promises of a new tomorrow now prison bars.
With every step they take and every word they say,
The streets are watching and the walls are listening.

Irene Jin is a rising ninth grader in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She draws, writes, and likes hanging out with her friends. She's honored to have this opportunity to spread awareness about the thin line between security and privacy in a technologically advanced society. Irene thinks that it is crucial for this generation to pace individual privacy with technological advances and hopes to spark a passion for writing about current events in the coming generation.

Read more winning entries from the 2022 Fighting Words Poetry Contest.