Beep: she answers me

with an emoticon, as --


if she isn't silent.

As your soul gently drains into your iPhone.
Cold and alone in a sterile home
They call it progress
However we can't go back...
Advertisements sell products on the net quicker than crack.
Hungry for all we lack
Wanting our childhoods back.
The future doesn't fit us
There is no pity for us
We curse our poverty
As the planet dies
An emoticon fills our eyes
It's a smiley to gloss over the truth.

Two curly brackets
with an apostrophe each
for eyes
like two faces
looking at each other
with noses
– or lips –
almost touching
and between the faces
a small letter x
denoting
(you guessed it)
a small kiss.

The faces are so anonymous
they could be anyone
but one is me
and the other
can represent any one
of my lady poet friends
or should that be
"my poet lady-friends"?

So if any of my poet friends
who are ladies
think they might like a small friendly gesture
of affection
from me
please take it as that.

We are after all
so far away
that it could never come to more
but like a small birthday present
it's the thought that counts.

Isn't it?