I pretend to choke on your long black hair
when we spoon;

the verdant December light pours through the room,
the moon.
Alone this Christmas, as in Seodaemun,
this flickering memory, none too soon.
We will now talk of 2009,
dissuade the fear
that props up the rear.
Where to next? What is best?
Embrace the future, forget the rest.
Part from here, go to there.
In the journey we come closer to a path,
make it clear.
I am up for anything,
game for any chance,
ours is an active pursuit
free from circumstance.
We leave a large wake,
swallow those whole
who dare seek roots
skimming across our cereal bowl,
damn hyperbole.
Contrary to popular belief,
a spoon is not one but two,
squat and square in our hand,
needing something to do.
That is the rub of us,
despite all the grandeur of travel, that wanderlust.
Whatever we do, we have to do.
Whatever we choose, we have to choose.
Complacency is not an option
or our spoon we would lose.

By Michael Gallagher

My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.

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