The Data Dregs

When you share, you share

More information

Than you care to share

Nowadays, given

Your information

Codes your breathing flesh,

Your social self, your

Cash identity,

And all your secrets.

The definition

Of sharing has changed,

Observes Ainissa

Ramirez. True, that,

But it always was

A mix of scrounging,

Half-tolerated,

And compulsory

Giving, wasn’t it?

The spontaneous

Offers of sharing,

As between toddlers,

Always were shadowed

By thefts, demands, shrieks

Of accusation,

And then some complex

Negotiations

And skepticism.

Plus, no one wants it,

Not all that you might

Care to overshare.

It’s loss of control

You fear when you share,

Not loss of it all,

Just what you wanted

To keep of you—you,

Not the dregs of you.