On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation came into effect in the European Union, reflecting universal anxiety over the erosion of privacy and individuals’ control over their identity in a digital world.
Ah—to boat across a drifting circle of sea,
With waves swelling from every point of the compass,
Where one can spy on a far-off brig or tip of land—
Even on such a ship, the sky will spin a modest veil from descending rain.
We could spend hours unviewed by anyone who might trespass our latitude,
Our course unclocked,
Our ship’s clangs and shouts
Absorbed by pleats of vapors.
But return to unshielded land,
We crowd the common arena.
The chatter of ticket-holders sounds out from one edge to the other,
Every syllable augmented by stone acoustics,
Jeers and cheers clattering across the platform.
Each actor’s gesture becomes an entire mime, each stutter a monologue.
We can’t shelter in the wings,
Or erase our biographies from the playbills whisked by the breeze
Out of doorways through the streets.
No wonder people don capes, shawls, chadors, masks.
When their turn comes before the footlights,
They strut in festoons,
Florid day-glow swirls,
Layer upon layer of dissemination,
All to make us applaud these accessories,
And hang a hasty prejudice on them.
So take a breath with me and step back—let us draw curtains across the carnival,
Put the acrobats to bed,
Retire to a candle-lit parlor behind a solid door
With copper key in an iron casement,
And quietly whisper filaments of wisdom by the arras.
To be published in Behemoth Magazine.
Andy Oram
August 3, 2025