from the archives

Paranoid Poem # 4,375,169 

My new you
beaut anti-
virus program – 
2007 version –

(& which, since
installation, brings
on go slows or 
even freezing) scans 

my infernal machine 
& tells me 
it has detected
a tracking cookie.

"Low threat status"
says the report.
"Recommend
ignore." But

ignorance is
not bliss to the
committed
paranoid, so I

fix it & sally
forth into the
ether sans
worms, sans virii,

sans cookie. 
I do not
trawl the web,
rather step

delicately, as if
in a field of
glass. A brief
visit here &

there, check
my mail, de-
lete the spam –
though if it

wasn't for the fact
that it's been
done so many
times before

I could get 
some good 
poems from the 
subject lines — 

& then with-
draw, but not
without running
another scan.

The tracking 
cookie is 
back in the
jar again! So 

I revisit
the journey, a
slow waltz, step 
scan scan, &

decide it's my
email account 
that's probably 
the culprit

which makes
sense since
I recently read
that various

government 
agencies in 
concert with 
various inter-

net providers
are in the
process of
building up

databases of
everybody's
virtual travel
& cyber-

correspondence.
But what can I
do about it?
Somehow I don't

think that broad-
band wrapped
in alfoil would
have that much 

effect &, besides, 
it's the forces
of law & ordure 
that are lined 

up against me. 
So I decide 
to join them
whilst at the

same time pay
homage to the
comics & b&w 
serials that

nourished my
youth. Have
changed my
email address.

From now on 
I can be reached 
at Mark Young 
at G-man_dot_com. 

          12.20.2006