Attention economy

As you gently play with my earlobes

With the softest touch, softer than feathers

Drinking your fill, 

With a faraway look in your eyes

My heart is full

It is the most I will ever be loved (or lobed)

The ardentness of your attentions

Humbles me

I am lucky

Because not everyone

Will be so loved, even once

Not to mention, again and again

**

And yet, despite the completeness

Of your attentions

I will let mine stray

I will let myself be seduced

By the easy attractions

Of glittering screens

Of clickbait

I WILL let you

Suck on, mindlessly

(Not you, I am the mindless one)

As I indulge in instant gratification

My mind craving

Hit after hit

Hugh after high

Conditioned as it is

To constant mollification

Just because it's there

Just because it's available

Just because I can

**

And I wonder

And I worry

If you can tell

That while you are giving me 

A hundred percent

I am giving you

Less than ten

**

How would it be different

If there were no phones

Would I read, 

When you are busy with me?

Or would I just look at you,

Watch your every look,

Feel your every move,

Wonder at your beauty,

Sigh at our bond?

**

Yes, I'm sure you can tell

Everyone can tell

Even babies

Whether they are getting 

The one hundred percent

The absolute concentration

Of attention

And when it's diluted

Diverted

Elsewhere

And you are simply

Background noise

For the other person

Whose mind is preoccupied 

**

And I wonder

If you will feel my love

Any lesser for it

If you will love me

Any less for it