My wife lost her phone

My wife lost her phone recently,

When she was shopping at an exhibition.

She realised it was gone instantly,

Since she felt an emptiness in her soul.

By the time she turned it was gone.

She panicked, looked around frantically,

Ran from stall to stall with desperation,

looking under tables and everywhere generally.

She continued shopping, putting on a brave face,

Though she knew, and I, what the loss to her meant.

The loss festered, in about an hour, she was in ferment,

For the emptiness in her soul just grew.

She was deprived of her regular feeds,

While I was checking mine every five minutes.

The brain that is devoid of dopamine, 

starts getting nervous, jittery, and panic begins.

Her colleagues at work were writing her off,

She was disconnected and off the grid.

Her friends all around were living it up,

and she was lonely, friendless and alone.

She came home, got on to the mail,

Which only worsened matters; she realised with some dread,

She needed her phone to approve several things,

All of which were of course very urgent.

Meanwhile, she had called, blocked her sim,

Driving one more nail into her own coffin.

For all people had was her number,

And no one nowadays comes calling.

She had no cash, could not withdraw more,

For her phone was where she saved her pins.

Music could have uplifted her mood,

but all her songs went with the phone.

Slowly the realisation started sinking in,

that without her phone, life was nothing.

She was totally distraught, she could not sleep,

The world didn't care: it had left her behind.

We are waiting now at the mobile store, 

for it to open, at nine on a Saturday morning.

Fifteen hours is a long time, an eternity, 

to live life without the phone.

Dinesh Gopalan

13 August, 2016