Even after they're gone
Their blogs continue sucking power into servers
To remain online. And they stay
On our list of friends on Facebook, always,
So near, they don't die;
Where in a different age,
They would not have been more than a weak glow in the abyss of our memories
Even as we strain to keep together
That distant warmth which is the ghost of their existence -
But now they're always with us. And we can always
Send them messages and happy birthdays,

Even after they're gone.
They're always there in the online world, but
Ever too shy to return
Messages, pokes, or accept
New friends; perhaps they are just too busy; perhaps,
In another world,
They have a life.

Even after they're gone,
We think only of those
We think of; We forget those we forget -
And we are distanced from
Our grief, which we no longer know how to contain
Within us; we are forced to learn to forget
What it meant to remember.
How do we light a candle for someone
Who is always present on our desks?

Even after they're gone,
We now have the technology
To keep them alive in our shared consciousness.
We can no longer feel the shape of the wall
That stands between Us and Them -
Or remember that we too will, in all likelihood, cross over,
To leave behind a people
Who will never learn
When to hold on,
And when to let go.