Sp-eyes by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

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

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