Where has the privacy gone?

From homes separated by a large canvas

Of green grass and long fences

Now walls sit not a feet from walls

Where voices can clearly be heard

And privacy has dissipated into the

Knowledge that we are not alone

 

The angry neighbors upstairs

The dog that barks incessitantly across the street

The hermit that won’t speak

 

We are all closer and privacy has gone

Not just the walls but my phone

Lying unlocked on my desk

The very thing that seems to understand everything I am

The exact reason my father doesn’t quite trust me

Because the texts have become truths

And the lies aren’t so easy to lie

 

Where has the privacy gone?

The privacy of one’s mind where all that is sane

Unravels into a series of thoughts

uncontrolled by your parent’s perfect depiction of a child

Or the government’s perfect depiction of a "citizen"

I don't want to lose the privacy of my thoughts

because I have lost everything else.

 

There is no space to separate me from my neighbors

Besides the thin walls poorly contained

Besides the door that is locked, but not yet sealed

And have we so expanded from curiosity that

Our phones are the connection we need to know everything

About a person who other wise should remain a person

Not some portrait laid out for everyone to judge

Because I like to think there is a part of me that is not clear

A part of me that remains me

 

My phone is no longer a way to be me

because privacy no longer exists

Why would I want my very soul an inconvenience?

Damn the overpopulation where we must be stacked to fit

Damn the poorly constructed walls where every word

Every motion I make is clear to the strangers I don’t wish to know

Damn the cell phone and the computer where at the click of a button

Out entire selves can be extracted where all that is left is an empty being

And damn me, for being a part of the system.