I’m rerunning this blog from two years ago for Lisa, who liked this photo I used on my Numbers Game blog and wanted to know the story behind it. This is the poem I ran with it in June of 2023.
No Longer in the Present
Seated around the table in our favorite cafe,
attention to each other has come to be passé
We are not present here and now. We’re all in other places
as we stare at tiny screens, intent on other faces.
The friends we have around us will simply have to wait
for our interest in the world-at-large to finally abate.
The news that’s happening elsewhere is simply more amusing
than what might be happening in this space our body’s using.
Other friends are funnier in their “selfie” poses—
pooching out their lips at us and scrunching up their noses.
It won’t do to look natural, we have to look unique
in the selfsame pose that all selfie-flashers seek.
So if your friends are boring, not half so chic as you,
you always have the option to make a Tweet or two.
Check out the latest fashions available from China.
They’ll only take three months to reach you here in Carolina.
Check out the weather in Tibet and give YouTube a glance.
Companions won’t distract you if you don’t give them a chance.
Living one life at a time no longer has to do
so long as you remember to have your phone with you!
So if you’ve dropped a French fry and spilled ketchup down your dress,
you needn’t be embarrassed. It couldn’t matter less.
Intent on Twitter, Instagram, Facetiming and Facebooking,
the friends with you won’t notice, for nobody is looking.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Such an apt photo to go with your poem. Thanks for finding it and sharing it, Judy.
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Thanks for wanting to see it, Lisa..
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You’re welcome.
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Another brilliant combination which I must have missed last time. Thanks for reposting
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Thanks, Derrick. I actually had forgotten it so thank Lisa for bringing it to view again by commenting on the photo.
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Ugh, one of the things that drive me crazy these days, and sadly, I have been guilty myself. 😔
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Me, too, but only when I am alone in a restaurant.
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Beautiful words and you are sooooo on point! Agree with @TIffanyArpDaleo Ive caught myself a few times pulling my phone out, then remind – lets be present. It can be nice when alone, to say catch up on blog reading – I am honestly trying to do more of that on a computer now though. I found it hard to shift to doing more on my phone and the last handful of years, were filled with trauma for us and I found myself clinging to my phone – as a life line of communication as for 3 times when my husband had an accident, that was our only way of communicating as they locked me out of the hospitals… Working on all that trauma but am seeing more clearly the HOWS.
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