affinity

affinity

 

there was a time

things just worked

 

you brought them home

new and gleaming

awaiting the harmony of power

 

undressed them impatiently

yet keeping fingers delicate

for the folds 

and the softer lines

 

electricity pulsed

lights blinked

eyes opened

and awe came soft and small

 

back then was the kinship of sockets and plugs

jacks and adaptors,

although unspoken

it was universal union

 

 

now we are nothing more

than points where systems meet

 

relentless interfaces

docking blankly with one another

as empty space

paws at empty space

 

our future becomes what it must

each of us mere user manuals

catalogued in a non-place

 

not the crumpled paper pages of old

overlaying one another at the edges

bent backed and bold

 

but lost forms

documented in storage clouds

placed beyond visitation

 

nothing exists now

we have gone past tangible

becoming read-only

 

locked and incompatible

 

changeless

 

we have achieved the ability predicted of us

having become wholly unable to know one another