It’s a virtual world out there

Or so they say

Sometimes it really seems... true

Cell phones, the internet, conferencing

computer to computer, in between

Will the future lose physical connections?

Friends become avatars

Or at least pictures,

Sometimes moving, sometimes frozen

Though words continue,

losing context, losing meaning.

Will the future lose the sensual, too?

Have we lost touch with the “real?”

Holding hands through the net

loses something in the attempt.

Cold, isolating, without touch

Forever apart as we stretch our “virtual” hands

Will the future lose touch with the words we still have?

Reading our text on screen.

Ephemeral and fleeting,

Impossible to hold.

No roughness on the hand

No feeling the edges of a page

Will the future re-connect our sensations?

No comments or underscored phrases to share

For future generations or just our kids.

No highlighting significant passages

Meaningful in the moment.

A memory created.

Will the future make even memories solid?

Where is the joy of the page

Holding it, the smell, sometimes musty,

other times brand new. The feel, the sound,

Pen scratching over the rough surface.

Will the future re-awaken tactile connections?

Annotating a page, notes

of significance only to ourselves

Marveled over by our young

A sensual gift full of sweat and tears,

Tangible messages from the living.

Will the future return to messages full of sensation?

The feel, the weight, the ability

to share the physicality,

The weight of words as well as paper.

Not something in the myth of cyberspace

wherever that is

Will the future bring back the sensation of weight?

The smell of the page

Flipping through pages

Finding a new wonder with each turn

New adventure, new thoughts

almost physically present through touch

Will we make a future that includes all these?