AUTHOR’S NOTE: This poem originally appeared in January 2025 in the online humor literary magazine Witcraft. Unfortunately, Witcraft ceased publication in 2025 (see this post for more information).
I saw Gus in the post office parking lot the day after he liked one of my posts on Facebook. This was a few weeks before the big election.
I shouted my greeting as he approached his car. He cradled a thick stack of mail in both hands and walked with a hurried gait. He turned and nodded, smiling politely, a bit curtly.
“Hey, I saw you liked my post yesterday,” I said. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”
He stopped at his car door and tossed me a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just that the topic can be pretty polarizing, and I know a lot of your online friends don’t share my perspective on it.”
“Ah, it’s no big deal,” Gus said. “Most of them wouldn’t see it anyway.”
“Okay, but if you want to delete it, I wouldn’t blame you,” I said. “Or I can delete it for you.”
“Nah, no worries,” he said. “It’s just a like on Facebook. No big deal. I thought you made a good point.”
With that, he stepped into his car, and I continued into the post office.
“You never know what will set some people off these days. Everyone is so divided.”
That night, I found a direct message from Gus in Messenger. He wrote that seven of his Facebook pals had unfriended him without explanation. “I think it’s because I liked your post,” he wrote.
“Could be LOL,” I replied. “You never know what will set some people off these days. Everyone is so divided.”
I added: “Like I said at the post office, I can delete your like if you want.”
“No need,” he wrote. “Buncha snowflakes. Let them be butthurt about it.”
The next morning another DM from Gus was waiting for me.
“Now the sonsabitches kicked me out of a group I was a co-moderator for,” he wrote. “Can you believe it?”
“A group for your side, I take it?”
“Yeah, but I never thought it would come to this. I’ve never seen this world so divided.”
I shook my head, dropped a thumbs up emoji beside his final comment, and closed my MacBook.
I thought some more about Gus’s situation and wondered if the stigmatizing he was experiencing on social media would cause him to turn away from the fanatical beliefs of his group of true believers and toward the one I aligned with. He seemed more open-minded than most.
Then I thought of how maniacal so many of his group were and concluded it would be impossible for him to disaffiliate without suffering severe consequences. For now, he’s only encountering their ostracism on Facebook. But if he went public, it could affect some of his closest relationships.
Then I thought maybe Gus — and I — should stick to discussing less divisive issues.
I re-opened the MacBook and shot him this IM:
Hey, Gus. I know you and your compatriots think our team is a bunch of cheaters that will do anything to win, but we’ve all seen the instant replays, and the refs all concluded that the receiver’s toe was out of bounds when he caught it. I know you Ravens fans are as passionate as us Chiefs fans, and you guys think your team is always right. But maybe we would both be better off if we channeled our passions to something less divisive, like presidential politics.
I never heard from Gus again.
Andy writes! 