A person is on a video call, looking at someone they love on a screen. The speaker reaches out and touches her face, but all they actually touch is glass. The screen answers with a ripple, the little distortion that appears when a finger presses on an LCD. It's a small, physical detail, and it carries the whole poem.
The ripple works in two ways. It shows the gap between the two people: she is somewhere else, and the finger meets a surface, not skin. But it also feels almost like a response, as though her face moved when it was touched. That tension is the heart of the poem. The speaker seems tender and a little hopeful, yet also aware of the distance.
The mood is quiet and wistful. The poem doesn't state any sadness outright, and the short lines and plain wording leave the feeling to build in the pause after "ripple." The label "LCD screen" at the start sets the cold, technical scene that the gesture then tries to warm.