NEPHART.COM

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

If I could un-invent something

I would choose the mobile phone

Before screens became maps

we expected our friends at junctions

No messages no tracking dots

just patience leaning on street corners

Sooner or later

both parties appeared

Smiles recognized smiles

Hands found hands

Hugs spoke their own language

All kinds of talk

All kinds of stories

All kinds of pain

First hand

Face to face

Back then

time waited with us

Don’t call me a neo luddite

Guns and bombs made loud wars

but the digital world fights quietly

and leaves its own empty rooms

Strange miracle though

someone far in a corner

can see me now live

Yet when I try to touch them

it glitches

And those glitches

become my itches

I stand here with a measuring tape

wondering if love can be counted in inches

Some people survive on cuddles

Some settle for pinches

and I am still standing

at the old junction

waiting

for a human

instead of a signal