The Cursor is a Hungry Heart
Dira Wiranti
About the Author
Dira Wiranti is a writer and poet from South Bengkulu, Indonesia. Her work often explores the intersection of human emotion, digital culture, and the quiet resilience of rural life. When she is not writing her next fiction project, she can be found exploring natural skincare or helping her family in the rice fields. Substack: @dirawiranti | medium.com/@dirawiranti6
The Cursor is a Hungry Heart
The clock strikes 19:31,
but the sun in my pocket never sets.
I am feeding a blue-lit ghost
with the marrow of my sentences,
waiting for the ping that feels like a heartbeat,
the digital nectar that turns my blood into static.
One scroll. Two.
My thumb is a pendulum swinging
between "Inbox (0)" and "Sent."
The dopamine is a jagged glass,
I drink it anyway,
shredding my throat for the sweetness
of a "Dear Author" that hasn't arrived.
The world outside is thick with Sumatra rain,
but I am breathing the ozone of the algorithm.
I am an anomaly in a world of code,
refreshing the page until my eyes turn into salt,
obsessed with the ghosts of editors
who hold my worth in their "Delete" folders.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The cursor is a blinking eye that never sleeps.
It watches me hunger for a ghost,
it watches me trade my peace
for a flicker of neon light.
I am not tired.
I am just waiting for the next hit
of a dream that refuses to die.