Conversation

 Conversation

 

In the text-and-email world

In which we operate,

In the sterile black-and-white

Communications

We exchange,

Where is the room 

For face-to-face?

 

We are increasingly

Distant, aloof, divorced

From our own words,

Divorced fro each other.

We do not see reactions:

Her smile, his hurt, her anger,

Their disappointment.

 

We substitute emoticons 

For emotion, and somehow

Define that as relationship.

We exist in abbreviated times:

Words and feelings and people

Reduced to lowest terms—

Symptoms of abbreviated connection.

 

We exist at arms’ length,

Deaf and blind to each other;

Riveted to screens and earbuds.

Is it any wonder that

We lack understanding,

Empathy, kindness...?

 

We need to talk.