They’re everywhere–
here there
in restaurants in schools in mosques
your closet
your bed
your last paragraph–
those curious question marks!
Spies with eyes
in the back of their head
are tracking you
like the CIA
like a jealous lover
like a digitalized number
on an overnight package
Big Brother
surveillance cameras
the eyes of your computer
the eyes of strangers
Facebook Twitter Instagram
stalking you like a wet dream
At the doctor’s office
even the stethoscope
knows your real name
and where you live
My own breath holds its breath
My walls cover their ears at night
My lips are sealed
with wet plaster and government staples
My poor poems run for cover
lest they be put on ICE
Look what happened to Whatsisname!
And remember Frederico García Lorca
Dictators kill poets and journalists for less
Assange Snowden Manning
Need I say more?
Even the babysitter is a snoop
Soon you will be tempted to bribe her with bubble gum
or offer her a ride home
And you can forget the dog he already knows too much
Who and where are they now these spies
or are they us?
disguised as ourselves
our enemies our friends fellow citizens
wearing three-piece law-suits–
Insidious Conformity Corporate Greed and Guilt Inc.–
dark shadowy substances
lurking invisibly
with sideway glances
I Spy with my little eye
the eyes of spies
Eyes observing
through glass under glass
unblinking binoculars
neighbors voyeurs Private Eyes
eyes in your privates
(Lovers are especially dangerous
You can never tell them anything
they don’t already suspect)
Secrets
take oaths
take prisoners take pleasure
are their own captive audience
behind locked lips–
double agents Agent Provocateurs
dangerous liaisons
After all
Enquiring minds want to know
You want to know
They want to know
I want to know
And conscience sighhhh
Conscience is the worst
Conscience and God–
They want to know Everything!
Repeat after me:
I will tell them nothing
I will tell them nothing
I will tell them nothing
Remind me won’t you?
to write this all down
in your little black book