Anonymously Gone

When at last we go silent deep within this internet hive, will the delayed surprise travel more or less than a minute or an hour? Did she or he die, or were they always apocryphal names written on dead air? If we ‘pass’ known only to a few who knew our covert compulsion to speak to the invisible, to write to strangers, (a secret we may take to the grave) shall we miss being so mislaid? Will a minor fame, a little flame, die with only an ethernet epithet knowing it left a mark so digital it could be deleted by a fingertip? When we go silent will they suspect, assume that we are just gone away, or imagine they hear once more a phantom voice on distant lips some other day?