Its 9 am, No 8.45
I pretend to check E-mails,
But my eyes are on the messenger
Has she come in? Will she be late?
Did she read my yesterday’s mail?
I keep deleting the junk in my mailboxes,
Ads, discount offers and the double x stuff.
I am restless.
I have some black tea sans milk
Look around for some medical articles.
No she wont come, I tell myself
I have said something wrong yesterday.
Then the little messenger widow pops up
On the lower right hand corner
Of my computer screen
‘Minnow says’ its written in dark blue
‘Hi’
I enlarge the messenger window
Shut down other programmes
‘It’s raining,’ says she
I keep quiet
‘And I am wet’ the message goes on
Now I react’ mmmmmmm
I would like to see you now’
‘Not that wet, just a lil,’
‘I have an umbrella’
I smile on to the computer screen
‘It’s freezing in here,
Let me turn off the A/C’
The dark blue letters talk
‘You wait’
Silence for 30 seconds
‘Yes I am back’ says incoming message
‘So I see’ I reply
She says she is wearing a maroon dress
She says her nails are long so cannot type fast
I advice her to cut her nails
She refuses flatly.
It’s nine fifty now
I don’t want to stop
This conversation about nothing
If she wants to stop,
She gives no indication
While I type the first good bye
I tell myself I am no good for this one
I get the message ‘don’t go, yet’
‘If you have some time to spare’
I stay and talk about
My breakfast, the evenings meeting
She talks about her new poem
Why I shouldn’t telephone her
Then I say my second goodbye
And go on talking
My patient who died after surgery
My daughter’s hobbies
We continue romancing
Without being romantic
Then, I say my third goodbye
And linger…