Living Room

Carol D’Souza

Television bricks. Neighbouring roots

grown over years find civil waters,

now with difficulty. Errant children, erratic health:

surviving safe topics. Wall building: now the answer,

it matters little what the question is.

Dam the heart on the go.

Mobile facility is contracted out to cell phones.

When far-reaching network of glowing square-inches

remotely manages to section and wall-off neighbours

living cheek by jowl at a moment’s notice,

the scale of the bricklaying machinery comes home.