Media Landscape of a Genocide By Elise Thi Tran

By The Rising Phoenix Review on June 29, 2024

Media Landscape of a Genocide

What are you looking for? / peppermint mochas / discounted trick-or-treat candy / the algorithm / two Hiroshimas / centered in / Al Aqsa Mosque / a tiny gingerbread house / the biggest sale of the season / the light across the room / Soundcheck: / I wanted this / how lucky am I / dust / decay / urine and feces / parallel lightning / free breakfast for life / WARNING: / aircraft carriers / the Rafah border / 14.3 billion dollars of military aid / gifts $50 or less / Costco hotdogs / a [redacted] commercial always makes me cry / It's really that simple / to support the following: / carpet bombing / the ideal sunday / romanticized violence / some silly fun / for the sake of morale / for fuller, thicker-looking hair / for the last 75 years / look at god / faster than you can claim leftovers / get paid to / manufacture international consent / the Biden administration / the speaker of the poem / a man who treats me like a toy / the reality is / the non-stop barbarity / verged on comedic / the main power generator / my low effort participation / P. S. / a little secret / you can cancel your subscription at anytime.

Collage of found text taken from individual, sponsored, and suggested posts, stories, news headlines, and advertisements while scrolling through Instagram and TwitterX.

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By Elise Thi Tran

Biography:

Elise Thi Tran (she/her) is a Vietnamese-Filipina-American writer. She is the 2022 First Pages Prize winner, a Chicago Literary Club Collyer Fellow, and a fiction judge for NYC Midnight. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Blackbird, diode, the minnesota review, Salt Hill, Shō, and elsewhere. Find Elise on Instagram @elise.tran