(c) Andrew Safer 2016
Seated on the university bus
A few minutes’ wait.
Three women to the left and right
Interacting
With their phones
Happily occupied and free
From the uncomfortable gaps
Of silence and dead time.
“Lucky them,” you think
Remembering when you were standing
Awkwardly in their shoes
Dying from self-consciousness
Now envious of their convenient escape.
Add up all those interminable anxieties
And the cellphone seems like a life-saver.
But when life doesn’t go as planned,
Uncomfortable gaps can’t be filled by a device
Juggling uncertainty…
You have to wonder how it will all go down.