Here we are toying with words together
That’s all it is really, until it’s not
Gone are the days of ephemeral interactions
When a person rehearsed what they said yesterday, over and over, until it resolved
When the statement and the resolution were figments of imagination
When perspective and context constrained and freed them
Every word, uttered here, is spun, reflected, and shattered in this new landscape
Let loose, the shards reduce “good people” to ruin
Ruinous ideologies pasted over fragmented souls longing for someone to talk to
Talking, how quaint
I reminisce about a time when your eyes met mine as you spoke to my posture
Your hand reached out to rest on my slumped shoulder
I gave honestly from a place no one can reach anymore
You say we have evolved
The way we have become, gaze torn from its role in our greeting
Gestures all askew, emPHA’sis on the wrong sylLA’ble
Joint participants playing different games
Arriving at outcomes far beyond our evolutionary aims
Audience, Listen.
In this landscape you see no authenticity
You identify with content, Your identity is manufactured
We no longer trust each other
On the basis of this realization, I “divorce” this place
I no longer feel the pull of s/he who has read my words
The manipulative pressure to follow or be followed
On my own experience, I own it. Right now.
I hope to meet you somewhere beyond the screen
Stopping six feet away, bubbles touching
Eyes-only smiles peering over masks
To perform co-presence in a novel way, defining our new normal
