ACROSS DARK MILES
The evening draws its curtains down – I’m sitting here alone.
My little ones have gone to sleep and it’s too late for the phone.
I pick up books. I put them down. I turn on the TV.
But it holds no joy, I turn it off. The stillness wraps ‘round me.
A restless longing fills me – as I shrug off descending gloom,
Then the flick of a simple switch invites the world into my room.
News, amusement, music, colours, movement, sound.
If anything exists out there, then this is where it’s found.
Joined by synthetic framework, beyond a changing screen,
A million fingers on a billion keys, yet faces go unseen.
Infinite silent voices chatting endless written streams,
Flowing fonts of black and white – hidden agendas, hidden dreams.
Mother boards, and silicon chips, software, megabytes,
A myriad of wires, connections conveying human rites.
Where parenthesis is smiling, but laughter goes unheard,
And tears are shed invisibly, fear and pain, with not a word.
And the legions of the lonely, the single and the bored,
Come worship at the altar where Microsoft is lord.
In the jungle, silent screaming, logging in and logging off,
I search for something real, something human, something lost,
And amidst the endless babble of humanity passing through,
In a break in the anonymous – a shift- and there is you.
A friendly voice in printed guise, a caring string of words.
The spelling is quite different but the message undeterred.
And pulsing through the cyber space I feel, not see, your smile,
Your energy reaches from beyond a screen to touch me for a while.
So strange that in this high tech world, where machines rule endlessly,
Across dark miles, a human heart can light a flame for me.
Across Dark Miles
I wrote this years ago, for my long distance friends, pondering the symbolism of the internet…. a cyber village, where we gather around an electronic fire and share our stories…...
cdwork, 9 months ago
Superb words- extremely well crafted
Larry Davis, 9 months ago
Oh Wendy those words are so so true
You are not alone with how things are
I travel those miles to fill that void
which seems endless and so far
But friends like you that keep me calm
And give me endless cheer
Are there to reply and chat and laugh
And to give inspiration and lend an ear.
( written on the spur of the moment.)
Wendy Slee KMA, 9 months ago
Thank you…
it seems to be the way we exist these days….
separate, alone,
yet somehow connected in whole new ways…
(by energy!)
demon, 9 months ago
How brilliant is this Wendy…
The world and technology has altered so much..I recall being a sceptic about the cyber world and computers…Thanks god I saw the light, A whole new world was opened up and lifelong frienships grown. :)))
Wendy Slee KMA, 9 months ago
yes indeed…
I find it fascinating how energy (and I mean the human kind) can travel this way…
Helene Kippert, 7 months ago
Wonderful work Wendy :o)
Ben Ruskin, 5 months ago
aww how clever, i really like this! and it reads so well. a definite thumbs up from my end of the screen :)
Phil Threlfall, 3 months ago
Even in your rhyming stages, ... this proves your wonderful talents with words. Well done.
Crowmanic, about 1 month ago
Well done, well written, and unfortunately, alas but too true for many, IT and peripherals are our salvation from tedium …
Enivea, about 1 month ago
Wonderfully expressed, thank you. I echo Demon’s words.
pixie3, about 1 month ago
Oh wow Wendy this is absolutely perfect and so very true!! I am glad to see that other people have the similar perspectives as me lol. Awesome :)