virtual lovers
i don’t even know your real name.

————

那么多的人只敢窝在网路里面生存
慢慢都忘记电脑萤幕没灵魂
科技的发达让人的距离被拉开
再也拉不回来。
- 王力宏，你和我

so many people, existing only in cyberspace,
slowly forget the computer screen is soul-less;
technology's advances pull the distances between people,
but you can neverpull them back.
- wang li hong / lee hom wang, you and i

————

we were introduced to each other
via mutual friends and fourth cousins
(both of which were more-than-willing
to play matchmaker
for two shy individuals)
and conversed online at every moment
we could escape from reality.

i invented
elaborate half-truths regarding my life,
and you often told me of your college adventures
even when that fourth cousin had once told me
you were only a junior in high school.
but i (thought i) loved you & your witty attention,
your endearments; you were so patient—
i knew you lived in Singapore,
and sometimes i’d amuse you
with my attempts to speak Mandarin.

you promised to pay an extended visit
to my aunt's apartment in Shanghai
when i visited last summer,
but you never came—
i should’ve been more surprised
than i was, really.

they told me you’d spent a hundred dollars
revamping your internet connection,
that you were devastated
when some spyware-or-other kept you
from coming online for four days.
& my own parents, they said
i spent too much of my day wasting away
before my LCD monitor,
but my grades didn’t slip, and i still
made the volleyball team;
what was a missed practice now and then?
it was all in the name of love, regardless.