Bottom Line

When you stepped out a moment ago,
caught by the silent flight of a bat across clouds,
or that other time
by the heaving shadow of leaves on a wall
or that yet another time
by the labourer calmly carrying bricks across your window -
nothing else happened.

There were a couple of updates, few messages,
somebody made a million,
you lost a couple hundred,
a newsflash came and went,
somebody got their fifteen minutes -
nothing that couldn't be missed.

You got to know how it feels, or more importantly that it feels something
to see a bat fly across a cloud,
a tree make a shadow on a wall,
to watch someone go about their work -
feelings inconsequential, but staple of the heart,
and hard to construct with words or bytes.

While you were disconnected,
you were connected.