Tom Lyford has original poetry books and memoirs for sale on-line, and offers poetry readings and workshops in northern New England...
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THE RIGHT STUFF

Picture
"...it's lonely out in space..."  --Elton John & Bernie Taupin


Fifty years ago, when the

psychological test results

were finally in, the scientific

intelligentsia pontificated:

Man will never--   can never--



travel the measureless emptiness

survive the stark loneliness

of the big-bang to the stars

so hopelessly social  is his nature

so utterly dependent is he



upon human warmth, upon real  contact

with his village... with his tribe...

today, a generation of innerspace-

astronaut sons and daughters and

nieces and nephews with uncanny



hand-eye-mouse coordination

self-strapped into the consoles

of wireless suspended animation

in space-capsule bedrooms

have launched their cargo lives



on  drifting trajectories through

the days, months and years of

cyber-space... utterly alone

and chatting endlessly

in virtual bliss


in virtual chat rooms

resolving virtual conflicts

with virtual combat

developing virtual relationships

leading steamy virtual sex lives



and leaving us, their

baby-boomer elders,

tethered back here

on terra firma by our

virtual umbilicals


Dover-Foxcroft's Rogue Poet Laureate since... well, OK... only 2010