e cafe
 
an uncanny sea of disembodied heads
bob before life support machines
transmit and receive
rays of simulated reality
 
eyes glazed and opaque
staring out soul-less windows
will suddenly blink into feeling
registering unfathomable frequencies
 
sometimes making gentle clucking sounds
or abruptly ducking imaginary kicks
sometimes a fluttering hand will land
on head, chin, or slightly parted lips
 
a gallery of caricatures drawn inches apart
hurried professor by harried housewife
nature enthusiast by flamboyantly defiant youth
loners, poseurs, punks and faux thugs
 
downloading bleak or enlivening news
their own or the worlds, and playing games
with virtual combatants or unreal lovers
mating online, an illusion within an illusion
 
for an hour at a time, wholly alone, together
each utterly engaged in their life’s minutiae
lost in private concerns, pleasure or pain
and the kaleidoscope of emotion in between
 
pensive, sly, delicate, expectant, impatient, forlorn
necks craning forward, scowling in consternation
chuckling, or glancing furtively over their shoulder
bodies undulating, and stealthily masturbating
 
traveling side by side, like passengers on a plane
though each in parallel planes of thought
racing in separate lanes, never touching
with nothing and everything in common
 
until the time is up and they hastily disembark
with petulant or quickening step, disoriented
leaving hopes and secrets behind
in those inscrutable black boxes.