As the morning sky lights up,
he rises like the tide.
Following the same old routine,
one he’d rather not abide.

By noon he’s on his game,
carrying the world in his hands.
He scrapes and crawls and stumbles on,
finding few footholds on which to stand.

Night rolls round and he’s tired and sore,
she finds her way into his mind.
Once so very close in heart,
in a world he left so far behind.

He lifts a portal to the world,
one sleek, black, and paper thin.
He loses himself in a spider’s web,
until he finds his way to her again.

He stares calmly at the screen,
singing praises he dares not say.
Watching and waiting silently,
will he take that risk today?

On the other side of that screen
in a world that seems so far away.
She stares wishfully back at him,
pining silently, she waits.

She lingers on for a moment so dear,
yet he whispers not a sound.
She’s met with silence yet again,
a longing lost and yet to be found.

She pauses for a moment more,
she tries to clear her head.
She opens a tab and words flow out,
but she hasn’t sent them yet.

She closes her eyes, it is his wish
that he should carry on.
And so with the stroke of a key,
all her words are gone.

She logs off for the night,
she lies quietly, and wide awake.
She gave up a moment too soon,
but she knew not the risk he’d take.

For he too had opened a tab,
hoping for a moment so dear.
But when he finally built up the courage to speak,
he’d found she’d disappeared.