Woman With a Baby

As the bus approaches its stop I notice

a woman holding a baby. She cradles it

carefully, shielding it from the rain. She looks

at it lovingly, tenderly – nothing will harm

her baby. We get a little closer and I can

see that the thing she is holding is too small

to be an infant. A puppy, perhaps? A kitten?

Her smile is soft, her gaze aglow. But no –

yet closer inspection reveals the object to be

neither flesh nor blood: she’s cradling

a phone. The woman at the bus stop

is cradling her phone. She gets on the bus,

stepping up with deliberation – careful,

slow. She takes the seat next to mine.

The microchips glisten at the back of her eyes.

Joshua Seigal