Connected

Posted on June 17, 2007 by Dave Bonta

Inside the body
of sleep, each thinking
we are alone & surrounded
by wholly private visions,
failing to recognize
the animal whose footfalls
we hear in place of our own,
touching what we take
for a wall where there are only
other fingers, other skins,
& waking to the smell of heat
on a cool morning in early
summer: I’ve turned into
a tourist in my own life.
I carry a camera from room
to room, alert for any irruption
of significance into the hum-
drumming of home appliances.
Someday, even my breathing
will seem worthy of note.

About Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with one quadrillion of his closest microbial friends --- a tight-knit, symbiotic community comprising some 500 different species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
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10 Responses to Connected

  2. Nathan says:
    June 17, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Tall Girl is right.

  3. marly says:
    June 17, 2007 at 7:20 pm

    I carry a camera from room
    to room, alert for any irruption
    of significance into the hum-
    drumming of home appliances.
    Someday, even my breathing
    will seem worthy of note.

    Now, I would like to see that photograph of breath, the day it seems worthy of note! To be Bontaesque-at-its-best, it would have to be what I am not expecting, not caught in the cold air or fogging the mirror.

    Not even containing an upside-down insect.

    What?

  4. leslee says:
    June 17, 2007 at 9:20 pm

    Sounds like you need a trip somewhere Dave.

  5. Peter says:
    June 18, 2007 at 12:49 am

    Looks like I’m trading the vacation pics I was expecting here for good poetry. Poetry is the best vacation, anyway.

  6. Lucy says:
    June 18, 2007 at 1:13 am

    ‘I’ve turned into a tourist
    In my own life’.

    Hmm, worryingly near the mark…

  7. Dick says:
    June 18, 2007 at 8:45 am

    A fine poem, Dave. I particularly like ‘alert for any irruption
    of significance into the hum-
    drumming of home appliances’. From adjective into verb.

  8. marja-leena says:
    June 19, 2007 at 12:50 am

    Great poem! I wonder if your inner self is substituting the trip around your rooms for that real trip you decided against. ‘Irruption’ is a neat new word to me.

  9. maria says:
    June 19, 2007 at 1:38 am

    What everyone else said so far…. The image of a noteworthy breath was irrupting!

  10. Dave says:
    June 19, 2007 at 12:05 pm

    Thanks for commenting, y’all. I don’t know how obvious the irony was here. But the fact is, at the moment, I am very disconnected, having lost my internet access!