by Phyllis Wax
They want DNA,
fingerprint, retinal scan
for a driver's license
or passport, to get on a plane
or train, enter
a public building, go
to a dentist or through
a supermarket checkout.
They read our emails,
listen to our phone calls.
I am afraid to whisper
nothings in your ear.
Phyllis Wax’s work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies including Thema, Porcupine Literary Arts Magazine, California Quarterly, Free Verse, Wisconsin Academy Review, and she co-edited the 2002 Wisconsin Poets' Calendar. Wax lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.