behind the avatars

[justcloudy]

Your inhumanely fat cat alternates between purring
in your lap and shredding the back of your swivel chair.
While you, typing clandestinely at work, snatch glances,
and busily erase browser histories each time you X out.
Not so you, lying in sweats on your bed, laptop balanced
with notebooks and wrappers and cans we imagine aren't full.
What about you, bleary, stumbling away to fetch a whining
baby, cooing as you pick out witticisms with one hand—

what shade of beige did your wife pick out for those walls?
Are your sheets chartreuse or charcoal,
and are you in a high rise or in your mother’s basement?
Is your cubicle filled with shot glasses from Disneyland,
or kindergarten finger paintings from your ex’s kid?
Does that cat grow fat from eating flouted leftovers,
or do you feed him like that from pity?

[billy]

now we're all thinking "which one am i" :d

[justcloudy]

My thoughts exactly. ;D

[newsclippings]

Your inhumanely fat cat alternates between purring
in your lap and shredding the back of your swivel chair.
While you, typing clandestinely at work, snatch glances,
and busily erase browser histories each time you X out.
Not so you, lying in sweats on your bed, laptop balanced
with notebooks and wrappers and cans we imagine aren't full.
What about you, bleary, stumbling away to fetch a whining
baby, cooing as you pick out witticisms with one hand—

what shade of beige did your wife pick out for those walls?
Are your sheets chartreuse or charcoal,
and are you in a high rise or in your mother’s basement?
Is your cubicle filled with shot glasses from Disneyland,
or kindergarten finger paintings from your ex’s kid?
Does that cat grow fat from eating flouted leftovers,
or do you feed him like that from pity?

Oh I do like this quite a bit. I have perfected the art of balancing my laptop on my boobies.

[rowens]

So you're going to become a postmodern cyberpunk after this poem?

[Erthona]

I pick out witticisms with two hands, they slip out of my grasp if I use only one!


Dale

[justcloudy]

Postmodern cyberpunk? Sounds boring.

[ChristopherSea]

We are all in those snapshots within your second stanza. Thanks for sharing it. One of my four is that fat cat! He's a black and white tuxedo named Orion, but he looks like Pavarotti. However, one of our bengals is on the same diet and is as lean as a greyhound.

[rowens]

inhumanely alternates X

I'm at a desk in a kitchen, next to a dishwasher and a hallway. Using a laptop with a crack starting at the top of the left side of the screen going down the middle of what looks like a thick black manta ray that takes up nearly half the screen.

[justcloudy]

Can you read through the manta ray??

I'm on an orange couch (my choice) in an orange living room (landlady's choice) next to my turtles. On a hand-me-down laptop that shocks me if I don't have sleeves, with a keypad that doesn't work, so using a purple mouse hubby took from work. My glasses are really scratched so they're on top of my head.

[rowens]

No I can't read through it. But I can read part of the screen. And I got a monitor the other day and hooked it to the laptop so I can see the rest.

[ellajam]

Your inhumanely fat cat alternates between purring
in your lap and shredding the back of your swivel chair.
While you, typing clandestinely at work, snatch glances,
and busily erase browser histories each time you X out.
Not so you, lying in sweats on your bed, laptop balanced
with notebooks and wrappers and cans we imagine aren't full.
What about you, bleary, stumbling away to fetch a whining
baby, cooing as you pick out witticisms with one hand—

what shade of beige did your wife pick out for those walls?
Are your sheets chartreuse or charcoal,
and are you in a high rise or in your mother’s basement?
Is your cubicle filled with shot glasses from Disneyland,
or kindergarten finger paintings from your ex’s kid?
Does that cat grow fat from eating flouted leftovers,
or do you feed him like that from pity?

This is so nicely done. Each thumbnail has just the right amount of detail to spark the imagination. This highlights what for me is a lot of the appeal of online communication, friendships in the dark.

Thanks for posting it, well done.

[rayheinrich]

"what shade of beige..."

fat cat claws cutting to the quick


(and behind the cat avatar: mom's basement)