Well, 😈🔥!
How did we survive before
we could communicate with
teeny illustrations, before
the word “emoticon” entered
our vocabularies,

along with
💜😵‍💫💋👩‍🦱🐱🦆✏️🎯🍅☀️?

Back in our day, kids,
we old folks had to make do
with only the symbols on a typewriter
(for which, sadly, there is no emoji)
keyboard to express ourselves:

@#$%&*(), and my favorite: !!!!!

Of course, we do this nowadays,
not from big computer ⌨️💻 keyboards,
descendants of the Smith Corona
and the more modern IBM Selectric,

but from small devices 📱 we carry
in our pockets that allow us to
send messages through the ether
to anyone who has a similar device—

and, in a pinch, make a ☎️ call,
too.

Hail 👏 the mighty emoji 😃, friends!
We’d be 💩👅👎 without ’em!