digital availability
   around the clock
after a while
begins to feel like
permanent responsibility

your friends expect you
to be online all the time
    whether you like it or not
so they can share with you their daily trivia
of personal condition, discount shopping, their dog’s health,
the children’s good, their problems with their partners,
etcetera etcetera

I know it’s nice to hit a button
and hear the ringing of the other’s phone
the voice responding to your call

it’s fine when there are no alternatives

and yet

somehow the electronic chat
confirms more than redeems
presence of absence of the person

I feel like talking to an avatar
a disembodied voice
that has a virtual existence
yet whose life in the real world
still needs to be asserted
by meeting – and talking –
in a café
or simply on the street

I just hope you know
I love you
as much
as you hate me.

His love an ocean,
and she was willing to *drown.

You changed,
You changed
I walked a way
To keep myself
I lost the game.
The game,
The game,
You were not fair
It was a war
I left you there.
You’re there,
You’re there,
And there you’ll stay.
You play the game.
I’ve walked away.