she told me
that she was trying to meet
as many people as she could
without leaving the house
Q: how are you going to accomplish this?
she smiled and showed me her laptop
it had stickers on it
we had met at the local library
before she had obtained this
sleek piece of machinery
she said that she no longer
needed the outside world
just the one that was in here
she touched her hand to the keys
Q: what about the mystery of the great outdoors?
at this she made a half smile
and looked to me and then to the machine
she told me that it was no longer
a mystery that everything we had
ever known
or will ever know
is inside this device
her eyes glazed over at this instant
and she fell to the floor
her body gripped in the throes of
a terrible seizure jerking and moving
arms and legs and torso
moving as if they were not connected to a whole
and this is when i knew
that this was not real
and that i was asleep
and all i had to do
was wake up
