Listen to a reading of this article:
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Just for fun we all pretend to be strangers.
Just for fun we pretend we don’t know each other on the street,
on the train, at the store, at the traffic light.
Just for fun we pretend we aren’t locked in ecstatic union
and briefly ignore our intimate knowledge of the primordial secrets
behind each other’s eyes.
We sit on the bus and try not to be the first to wink,
or to burst out laughing at the silliness of our game,
or to call out the goofy elephant in the room
about how we’re all pretending to be strangers
just for fun.
Two spouses pause mid-coitus to shake hands and introduce themselves.
Two twins in the womb make awkward small talk about the weather.
The thumb and the index finger avoid eye contact on the elevator.
Two slimy babies squirt into the same universe,
made from the same stuff,
and then put on masks made of mind chatter
so we can pretend that we don’t know each other.
My atoms are your atoms, and your atoms are mine.
We have danced this swirling energy orgy since before the Big Bang.
Playing positive and negative,
playing stimulus and response,
playing predator and prey,
playing mother and youngling,
playing enemies and lovers,
playing strangers on the internet,
just for fun.
I apologize, my timeless sibling,
for breaking character just this once.
Let us return now to our little game.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.
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