The Purple Devil

The Purple Devil


Interrupted by incoming mortars
Our messenger chat hesitates,
Holds its breath,  
Listens to silence
The turquoise pawn
Blinks its burning eyes
Waiting for the knight
To reappear announcing
An enemy’s demise

This war, a first
Where instant messages
Reach moms and dads
as rockets explode overhead-
a technological war
a war of blinking cursors,
messenger chats,
battlefield dialogues
of Civilians and warriors
This is a war
where e-mails detail
yesterday’s close calls,
dead comrades, bloody gore

The orange rectangle
flashes, signals return
a “Whew almost got us”
neatly typed
in the blank box
followed by a smiley face-
a purple cackling devil. We
chat of Notre Dame,
The Raiders, Tiger woods.
Our time is up.
I pray
at the altar
of the blank screen
another Sleepless sleep,
waiting for
The cackle
of tomorrow’s
purple devil