I, Phone

It’s a fellowship in which
we are each learning to comprehend
what links soul and screen,
that identity is located somewhere
between the self and the selfie.
And we have already been accepted,
part of a social network
expected to have the same import
as a patient’s family history.
It can be frustrating
when, for example, updating slows the morning,
and at times we still want everyone nearby
to turn their devices off,
yet we must admit we rely on connections
that can be suddenly reinforced
with tiny threads,
where once our course needed cables
it took ages to lay.
We risk in the accounting of
work and life in mass
that the ballast may be unbalanced
by the touch of a fingertip upon the glass.

Now that a part of our minds
exists outside our heads,
and we find hidden in our coat pockets
so many answers we protect them
as if forbidden,
we need physicians who understand
the others we become
when we hold our phones
between fingers and thumb.