Away

The poem ‘Away’, by Irish poet Vona Groarke, represents the strange intimacy of transatlantic communications via Skype. It’s from Groarke’s 2009 collection, Spindrift.

The poem opens with the collapse of time zones as “I babysit by Skype… I am three thousand miles ago / five hours in the red.” Across a series of vivid images, Groarke moves from the futuristic imagery of touching faces on a screen to imagine being trapped in the “room” of an obsolete laptop, shut off from others in an eternal loop “where I Skype and Skype / and no one answers.”

Away

I babysit by Skype,
breakfast to their lunch,
lunch to their dinner.

I straighten uniforms, ask French,
nag music practice, argue Friends,
trim their Bebo access.

I touch their silky faces on my screen.
I am three thousand miles ago,
five hours in the red.

What would it take –
one crossed cyber wire,
a virtual hair’s breadth awry –

for these synapsed hours
to bloat to centuries,
for my background

to be rescinded
to a Botticelli blue,
my webcam image

ruffed and pearled,
speaking vintage words
into spindrift?

Or, failing that,
for me to be headlonged
into light years off

to the room of an obsolete laptop
where I Skype and Skype
and no one answers,

where I Google Earth to see
if the world namechecks
for me this morning

my son’s bike in the garden,
my daughter’s skirt
on the line?

Vona Groarke, ‘Away’, from Spindrift (2009)

Shared by Dr Dorothy Butchard, Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Digital Cultures

Research Spotlight

• Category: Dorothy Butchard, Gallery, Global Communications
• Tag: c21, distance, poetry, skype, Vona Groarke