Latency

I fade away when I’m around the rest of you.
Like there is no ground we must stand on
connecting everything.
Burned down baseball fields
still keep the outline of the bases
in the sand, but all the outfield now
is ash, and the score board
will be empty for forever.

Loud arguments happen continuously
in long lines where no one knows
what they are waiting for.
Piles of old clothes are frozen in
the aftermath of the flood
that brought the walls down.
A woman in a rocking chair
is chanting “run” while she is sewing
something like a quilt with just her insight
and the memory of a her mother’s
fundamentals.

Parents video call their kids
while they’re bored at work
to minimize the hurt
that arcs between them
like the current between points
of endless energy.
It feels like there’s a break through
in the latency,
an EMP that takes the user name
away from me