A Walk on the Cutting Edge

I pull bracken fronds through fingers
on the edge of a freshly shaven
playing field, where cut grass lingers

a tinny ping disturbs the aromatic stillness
you reach into a pocket for your phone

sand martins wheel,
chiffchaffs dart through twigs,
the woods whisper

check the screen, smile and take a selfie
tap the keys and tweet to your friends

a burning bush of fluorescent yellow gorse
and frothy daffodils
are an instant reminder of spring

one more check on Instagram
followed by another ping

along the crest, wind-whittled hawthorns
blow in a frozen gale
fantastic shapes and dusty blossom

now you’re texting
your fingers chatter like birds in brambles

I check my watch, start the climb
up the shallow hill and watch you on your phone.
I’m thankful for some mother-daughter time.

Kim M. Russell, 15^th April 2017

On Day 15 of The Poetry School’s NaPoWriMo prompts, it’s Technology Day.

Ali Lewis asks, when was the last time we checked our mobile phones or read about someone checking a mobile phone in a poem? Technology has completely changed the way we live, but reading most contemporary poetry, we’d never know.

Ali wants us to have our poems interrupted by a tweet every other line or to write about virtual reality. We could lament that computers are finally besting humans at the board game Go! We should remember that technology doesn’t just mean the internet, it can be physical technology too.