on privacy

They are adding bricks to the wall of my grandparents' house

—there was never traffic to intrude in Harrington road, now there is—

And we (bourgeois-ly) don't like it.

There are dire warnings, now and again—

The State will pry. It will swallow up

all the information on all the forms you've ever filled,

And then you.

I slump in the chair on the porch, barefoot, coiled up,

and stare at chameleon on the wall, who is

failing to blend in with the new white paint.

A gate and wall can only be so captivating.

What's the big deal about privacy?

A lot. Why should we adjust without it

If it's a Right (enshrined, etc.)?

And Ayn Rand said that civilization

meant setting man free from man.

I don't underestimate freedom.

I need it. Yet

—perhaps this is indoctrination—

I have grown to appreciate

the relationships that grow

out of not being able to lock the door

and of being locked in together.