Communication (2020 edit)
Janet Kuypers
(Spring 1997 poem, updated 12/3/20 for 2020 book release)
I
now that we have the information superhighway
we can throw out into the open
our screams
our cries for help
so much faster than we could before
our pleas become computer blips
tiny bits of energy
travelling through razor thin wires
travelling through space
to be left for someone to decipher
when they find the time
II
got into work the other day
and got my messages out of voice mail:
mike left me his pager number
and told me to contact him with some information
another mike told me to call him at the office
between ten thirty and noon
lori told me to check my email
because she sent me a message i had to read
so i first returned mike’s phone call
but he wasn’t in, so i left a message with a coworker
and then i dialed the number for the other mike
listened to an electronic message,
dialed in my own phone number
then i got online, checked my email
read a note from ben, emptied out the junk mail
realizing i didn’t actually get a hold of anybody
i tried to call my friend sheri
but i got her answering machine
so i said,
“hi - it’s me, janet -
haven’t talked to you in a while - ”
at which point i realized
there was nothing left to say -
“so,
give me a call, we should really
get together and talk”
III
sara and i were late for carol’s wedding rehearsal
which was a bad thing, because we were both
standing up in the wedding
and we were stuck in traffic, and i asked,
“sara, you have a cel phone, don’t you?“
and she said “yes”
and i asked, “well, do you know carol’s
cel phone number, cause if you do, we can
call her and tell her we’ll be late -”
and she said, “no - do you know it?”
and i said “no”
IV
I was out at a bar with Dave, and I was explaining to him
why I hadn’t talked to my friend Aaron in a while:
“You see, we usually email each other,
and when we do, we just hit ‘reply.’
when you get an email from someone,
instead of having to start a new letter
and get their email address, you can
just hit the ‘reply’ button on the email message,
and it will make a letter addressed
to the person who wrote you the letter originally.
so one of us sent the other a letter, and
it had a question at the end,
so i hit ‘reply’ and sent a response,
with another question at the end of my letter.
so we kept having to answer questions for each other,
and we just kept replying to each other,
sending a letter with the same title back and
forth to each other. well, once i got an email
from him and there was no question at the end,
and so i didn’t have to send him a response.
so i didn’t. and we never thought
to start a new email to one another.
so we just lost touch.”
and then it occurred to me, how difficult it had become
to type an extra line of text, because that’s why
i lost touch with him
and then it occurred to me, no matter how many different
forms of communication we have,
we’ll still find a way
to lose touch with each other
V
now that we have the information superhighway
we can throw out into the open
our screams
our cries for help
so much faster than we could before
but what if we don’t want to communicate
or forget how
too busy leaving messages, voice mails,
emails, pager numbers
forgetting to call back
what if we forget
how to communicate
VI
i wanted to purchase tickets for a concert
but i was shopping with my sister
and wasn’t near a ticket outlet
but my sister said, “i have a portable phone,
you can call them if you’d like”
so she gave me the phone, and i looked
at all these extra buttons, and she said,
“just press the ‘power’ button, but hold it down
for at least four seconds, until the panel lights up,
then dial the number, but use the area code, because
this phone is a 630 area code, then press ‘send’.
when you’re done with the call, just press ‘end’, and
make sure the light turns off.”
so i turned it on, dialed the number,
pressed ‘send’, pressed my head
against the tiny phone
and the line was busy
and i couldn’t get through
VII
i wanted to get in touch
with an old friend of mine from high school,
vince, and the last i heard was that he went to
marquette university. well, that was five years ago, he
could be anywhere. i talked to a friend or two that
knew him, but they lost touch with him, too.
so i searched on the internet, to see
if his name was on a website or if
he had an email address. he didn’t.
so i figured i probably wouldn’t find him.
and all this time, i knew his parents lived
in the same house they always did, i could just
look up his parent’s phone number in the phone book,
and call them, say i’m an old high school friend
of vince’s, but i never did. and then i realized why.
you see, i could search the internet for hours
and no one would know that i was looking for someone.
but now, with a single phone call, i’d make it known
to his family that i wanted to see him enough to call,
after all these years. and i didn’t want
him to know that. so i never called.
VIII
now that we have the information superhighway
we can throw out into the open
our screams
our cries for help
so much faster than we could before
but then the question begs itself:
who
is there
to listen
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