Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian writer and poet..

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

 

download 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.