Psalm for a digital age

Poem by Harvey Gillman

I sent you a message. You stopped answering a time ago.

On my knees I begged to know what name you had become.
Your silent laughter filled the multiverse.
I consulted the address book
and called again all the names I found there.
I shouted, whispered, coaxed, wheedled, texted even.
Perhaps there were responses in an unknown file
or the password I had was wrong or outdated.
Maybe you were playing hard to get
or just annoyed at the constant petitions
and blocked all lines of communication.

(It may have been, of course,
that my prayer was your name,
or the wind that blew it away,
or the water where it floated or sank,
or the earth where I buried it.
Just to send the message was enough?
The seasons have come and gone,
no shoot, no green, no trace of soil disturbed.
The screen like the earth is frozen.)

Where are you hiding now, my dear?
In the dark I write your name,
graffiti of a former love on sites all around me.
Am I now unfriended from your list of lovers,
or my messages saved on some storage system
I never decrypted?
My message bounced back
from heaven to earth
– our devices incompatible?
The tablet lies broken?
My soul hacked into, held for ransom?

It could be, I know,
that your silence itself
was the response that I needed.

I shall not delete however
from the archive of my heart
the only address for you
that I ever possessed.

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Comments

Yes, that tatty old address book says it all! A poem that speaks intimately of a very powerful loss that many feel. Full of strong, painful images but ‘the archive of my heart’ remains.

By katon on 1st July 2021 - 8:48

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