It should have dawned on me that
something was awry, when
I began to get annoyed at a phone
call, that would take me
momentarily away from my computer,
and my "new family"
at the Poetry Pool, anytime someone
suggested that I was
spending to much time on the
computer, my answer would be
I'll be off in five minutes or
I have to relax here
(at the Poetry Pool)
for a little longer, I'm feeling
tense, What use to be my "real"
world
became smaller and less interesting,
I didn't want to go anywhere
and leave my poetry "family".
A knock at the door of the computer
room, became very
agitating, and when I was somehow
forced off the computer,
I talked incessantly about Gertrude
who was sick, Billy Bob,
who was going through a divorce,
and poor little Myrtle who
was depressed.
I no longer had time for these people
here in my house that
called themselves my family,
"my new family" were available
to me 24-7 on my computer at the
"Poetry Pool"
they never asked for dinner or needed
me to mend a torn
jacket, they usually said kind and
encouraging things to me
and if by chance someone said something
nasty to me,
I could simply delete them, with the
click of the mouse, I had all the company
I needed, I was never lonely there.
Then one stormy night, tragedy struck!
I was doing my best
to ignore my husbands plea's to shut
down the computer because
of the electrical storm that was raging
outside, I began to think
maybe he was right, that I should turn
off the computer,
at that very moment, a bolt of lightening
came through the window, and hit me.
The pain was incomprehensible, the smell
of burnt flesh hung
thick in the air, smoke billowing from
my charred body, I faintly
heard my husband call 911 and heard
him say "honey" please
try to hold on, I heard the
sirens getting louder, help had finally
arrived but could I possibly pull through,
knowing the critical
condition I was in? as the medics began
triage,
reality finally sunk in and the full scope
of just how obsessed
I had become with my new "family" at the
Poetry Pool sank in.
I wondered how I could ever make up for
all the lost time with my
family, if I did pull through, I heard
third degree burns, shock,
critical condition, a shot of morphine
cleared my head a little,
and as I was being put into the ambulance
with
one last ragged breath, I whispered, honey,
don't forget to bring
my laptop.
