Reality to Be Made

Dystopian Poetry with a Pulse · Hush Halo by Sam Oldman · S2151

How much I used to get wrong in private before anyone had to see the result? This poem is part of HUSH HALO, my dystopian poetry collection. As of today, this hasn’t been published anywhere else.

Poetry and world-building: Sam Oldman. Images and soundscapes are made with generative tools.

Reality to Be Made

Hush Halo · Poetry by Sam Oldman

I remember privacy.

Before silence looked like hiding,
before it sounded suspicious,
before it needed justification.

I’m telling you,
it was interiority,
a secrecy of sorts.

You wouldn’t know.

I remember
letting a thought form badly.
Even feeling strongly
before knowing why.

I remember
leaving a message unread
and yet, somehow,
navigating the world.

Privacy held a safe space
between my mistakes
and my identity,
giving me a hallway
to rehearse who I was,
who I wanted to grow into
one day.

This space
where all of me
wasn’t accessible
in the holy name
of safety, care,
and control.

When my moments
were not by default shared and measured,
optimized and corrected,
for the greater good
of me and you.

I remember being bold,
as my moments were mine
to guard, to hide, to share,
or to hold.

I know.

This all sounds absurd now
in this system
with a hollow eye
of overreaching,
searching and seeing,

in a culture of the open diary,
unable to imagine why anything
would need to remain unseen
in the first place.

I remember a time
when shame was let be,
without a progress bar,

where crawlers
were not a forced
subscription setting,

where the soul
was not auto-synced.

I also remember why.

©2026 Sam Oldman

---

Shop & Support

NEW! Hush Halo books are now available as Daily Poetry Products at Shop.HushHalo.com. All books are available as downloadable eBooks and as Printed Books (Amazon).

---

POETRY · START HERE · BUY BOOKS · SHOP · LINKS

---

Hush Halo is my indie art project.
Please support if you can.

Coffee instead? ☕

---

🎧 Poetry with a pulse
Hush Halo poems have an unique soundscape. Images in this post and immersive soundscapes are created by the author using various generative tools.

---

THIS POEM reflects the emotional atmosphere on the Hush Halo realm. Systoics are a privileged group that willingly integrated into the man-made system. Chasing perfection and ease, became with an unexpected burden.

Hush Halo is my indie art project.
Please support if you can.

Buy Me a Coffee? 🍷