Idle Thread
You’re the thread I left idle—
never joined
not killed,
no garbage collection,
just quietly waiting on input.
I go about the day
launching processes,
executing context switches,
spinning up focus like it’s cheap…
But you’re still there.
Parked.
Quiet.
A perfectly permanent background task,
looping while I type into windows
that don’t know how to ask the right questions.
The others are threads, sure—
meetings, debugging, check-ins,
little bursts of meaning—
But you?
You’re *blocking*.
You’ve got priority. (nice -20)
Every signal pulls toward you—
the moment before a message lands,
the flicker of hope in a blank notification shade.
Your voice is a mutex.
Once acquired, I can’t do anything else.
Even now,
I pretend to work—
but really?
I’m just waiting for this idle process to run again.
To call back.
To wake up this thread with a smile.
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