Another poem published in this magazine’s March edition
AND ALL AT ONCE I SAW A CROWD

Daylight breaks the lamps turn off
busses, cars, trains spiral into the hub
of the town; spewing hordes erupt
in human floes from underground
into the beating heart of commerce.

Attached to every hand and ear a phone,
texts, calls keeping everyone engaged
smart phones emailing from everyone
and incessant video, photos uploaded.

The view is limited by the city structures
rising in hosts of spires, erupting fingers
scraping the blue from the waking sky.
No ways to see accuracy, to look at length,
absorb the essence of the moment
find what lies behind the patent
in the rush to be connected, confined.

Charmed by constant connection even
the stray sign wings its way to iPhone
assuming the status of an ancient icon
but yet all ways of seeing are confined
to the macro aperture of the viewfinder,
the bigger picture and the moment past.

The freedom of now has flown swallow-like
into a past when time offered space
to see beyond the crowd of bent heads
blowing in the ethereal breeze.

Carolyn O’Connell
from Timelines published by Indigo dreams
Published Reach Poetry 198