A Laptop Universe

'Gee, you're looking good today'.
I said as I looked down.
He winked a bit and slightly smiled,
But never made a sound.

'Yes, you're looking good today '.
I said in joyful cheer.
I would have hugged him oh so tight,
Could I have held him near.

He was there, just as he was,
Sure all there was of him.
A silent head, without a form.
A tech, in charge of them.

The wires and plugs that kept alive
The head of my best friend.
So he could live another day,
of life, that may not end.

The table there on which it lay,
A laptop universe.
Sadly holding this display.
How could a fate be worse?

They'd made for him a phony form,
Just as he once had been.
They sure need a place called Hell,
To put these _______s in.

I pressed a tab on his display
And he soon came alive.
What ere it was, it seemed as though,
He had a good hard drive.

I heard his voice as it had been.
Amazing, what they do!
'My friend, I'm glad you came today.
I don't see much of you '.

I tried to smile, it must be him,
I thought there after all.
Science plays such tricks on us
So often in this hall.

He talked to me, I talked to him,
For just a little while.
I wonder at such things as this,
Our lives of endless guile.

I left the lab of tortured souls
And looked out at the stars.
Perhaps they did such things as this
Once long ago, on Mars.

I breathed the air, such as it was;
With all its smoke and grit
And prayed I'd be at peace someday
As just a part of it.

GREENWOLFE 1962