I thought I’d write you a note for when you’re angry or stressed

I know, you can read what you like

In theory you can buy and return the same item 500 times

Just for the unboxing experience

As if to exhaust the mystery of commerce –

I mean, there are always loopholes…

I write to you tethered to an unknown device 

Through data forests we can’t always inhabit convincingly  

Travelling at night along corridors

Of flenched pixels 

Mouth lag, unsynced signals 

Routinely exceeding my teleport limit

Pinging back to my sofa and a sunset screen 

Dazed with sticky wrists, locally real…

Timing out, you were almost a recording 

Sent in traffic and severed mid-siren

It’s an emergency, we get it

They electrified the water with images

Timestamped a summer sky

With the city overheating

For weeks even

One text message a day

Is all a person needs to survive