*****

Recorded Reading (1:47): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uli7wxys6zfgfd1bavdh6/A-Gravely-Compromised-Practice.mp3?rlkey=6wj731y92xch9fqgfmqyu1m7c&dl=0

*****

A Gravely Compromised Practice

When you thought you emailed to
One of two women you’d just met
So recently it confused you,
Were reassuring as it get

“I’ll just give a call,” you said
“The test will take just half an hour”
~ Yes, the business would be sped
By all your earnest power

Upon discovering I was
Neither one those women of
Your communicative buzz
Suddenly contained less love

But not before you sent the hail
“Hello, Mystery Woman!”
(To which I answered “Greetings”
As a generic human)

Suddenly the scene is not
Such as you had said you’d meant ~
Now my priv’ledge must be bought
By a “statement of intent”

Followed by acknowledgement
Of informed consent —
To all of which I gladly bent
My earnest discernment

Yet arrives no statement
It’s been five days since the call
Originally by you meant
“Easily arrange it all”

There are words behaviors for
Which resemble this —
Words the decent quail before,
As rightly decent is

I think it good that you decide
To ghost authentic me
I would not wish my score to ride
So percariously

When you add your victory
And your losses, just the same,
I hope you are grateful to me
For not publishing your name

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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