[Newspoetry] Re: Newspoetry digest, Vol 1 #1226 - 1 msg

[Donald L Emerick]

SPAM: FORBIDDEN FOOD

I don't get a lot of mail,
but it is just and fair
to require anyone
posting me a message
to be a kind of person
who lists an address and
who takes responsibility
personally, as a duty,
which proves itself by
listening to alternative views,
as well as offering its news.

SPAM is thus forbidden
because there is no intent
to listen and to respond
in whatever way is right
for each of the diverse ways
its responses could happen.

This does not mean, of course,
that anyone must ever perform
all intended duties of response.

Most responses will not appear,
not in messages sent, anyway,
but be repressed, if not forgotten.

Trust me!  I flap my lips a lot,
I drone when no one else drools.
I think I am prone to respond
far more than average persons,
but, even I only actually respond
to a small fraction of e-mail:
I drive by d_rive_logs I keep.

I even, expediently,
responded to myself, once:
no one seemed to notice,
no one seemed to care,
no one thought me any odder --

But that may be because
they know I am odder
than any odd number --
or, if they had such thoughts,
they repressed them,
hoping to forget the oddness
that might have made them
odd enough to respond.

I like to leave no odd thought
alone and behind, like a victim
who never becomes a witness,
unless someone listens:
a more imaginary state
than even I ever imagine:
realized intent is truly tiny,
against all of the odds.

(I deduce SPAM is not odd
and thus is rightly forbidden
because it would not be odd.)

Thanks for listening,
Donald L Emerick