I try to imagine Hermes 
the first time he held a phone in his hand—
did he hold it to his ear or his mouth?
Who did the god of communication
call first? Did it unsettle him to speak
to someone when he could not see their face? 
Did he wonder what their hands were doing?

I wonder how he feels when he sees us 
struggle to put our phones down, 
how we’d rather move up a level 
on a game than get to know a stranger’s face.
Does he find it strange that so many of us
don’t mind a stranger following us, so long as
they like the photos we post?

Does he think it a pity that we grow
hard of hearing while our ears are intact?—
“But I can hear just fine! Can you not hear
the keys tapping as I type?”—And I bet
it makes him sad to see that we prefer
to type LOL or haha than to listen to
the sound of a real laugh.

Image by Tracy Le Blanc