Poetry - Okay

when a character asks
'are you okay?'
shouldn't you look around
at the true friends you lack
and ask why,
and where,
and how

you lost them?

why you pushed
yourself
apart

took solace in a machine,
faceless but for pixels
heartless but for contrived,
scripted compassion;
an illusion,
a ruse,
a fake

you should recall:

real people do
have worth
enough

to ask 'are you okay?'
with genuine regard,
and to understand,
even when the answer is
'i can't be'
'i'm not'
'no'