The numbers of Insomniacs Anonymous
Skyrocketed that first week
The 8G network launched
Complaints of voices in the night
Horrors of “who’s there” and the
Heightened feeling of “I’m not alone”
Expanded with The Network’s growing coverage
By the time the final generation of wireless
Had reached the computer, smartphone, and tablet
From sea to shining sea
A gradual understanding arose
That we no longer needed those devices to communicate
A receptor
Lost somewhere in our mammalian medullas
Had suddenly evolved and switched on
Or had merely housed the correct slot
For technology’s latest puzzle piece all along
As these people – we
Were not just hearing murmurs
We were receiving them
Suddenly we could tell our lovers and mothers and wives
What we’re feeling because they already felt it too
We could lend lawnmowers to our neighbors without
Granting permission because they already had it
We could determine the capitol of Paraguay before looking it up online
Because we already knew it
It’s Asunción
No headlines announced the epiphany
That we and the online had become one-mind
It was felt by all
And chaos of course erupted
But only for a nanosecond
From the particles
We stood
Brushed ourselves off
And felt the collected support
It was not long before The 8G Network spread
To every city, and every village on the planet
Those next few decades passed in hyperspeed
The people of Earth moving in one motion
Advancing rapidly with a new plot
Unchained from individual achievement and
Independent desire
The people of Earth united at last
To build a better future for all of humankind
And those many million years later
When the sun and our homeland had gone
We were already amongst the stars
Finding new civilizations and
Sharing our knowledge
One day the universe will echo
“We are humanity.”
And then collapse upon itself