Before

Before

Before the hive went live, and an iPhone could tell your love, and that man attached to the bell on that door, where you snogged who on which step; Before the hive went live, and every passing flight of feeling caught in photographs or lines were saved, engraved in polar ice, immortally, defrosting frozen life;

Before the hive went live, keeping ever-after retrospectives safe, when life was lived through sense and viscerally, unscreened; Before the hive went live, to mediate and regulate debate; to foster a dependency on forms of screens; before anonymous reports; before still more surveillance and support; Before speed traps and cams in cars; before the trace of covid’s tracks;

Before cats and dogs were chipped; before Apple knew more than your GP did; 

Before, were we more present then?

Before.