DIGITAL

DIGITAL

who has digitized me

has reduced me to

a bar code, 

a string of numbers

telling of my physical location--the street

number, the apartment number,

the suite number

zip plus four:

come find me.

come touch me if you dare.

come speak to me

Area code (XXX)  has changed, again,

changed again.

the physical location, too, has changed

without the burden of ownership.

wherever i travel, I am trailed by nine digits

that prove my eligibility for so many things:

citizenship, of course,

right to work,

right to be taxed,

right to be traced--endlessly

pursued by marketers 

intent on convincing me

that I need what they have to sell.

with sixteen digits embossed in plastic,

rewritten in magnetic patterns,

i purchase my daily bread, 

my freedom to travel,

my daily clutter that

consumes so much energy,

time and talents.

Copyright (c) 2012 by the author