the fine print

it’s unhealthy not to have secrets, not to have stuff

that only you are privy to,

to feel like you have to or want to air them out,

distributing them unevenly among your friends,

among strangers in a bar

or among people you’re counting on never seen again

or that you’re counting on being half as drunk as you

when it comes to protecting your identity, your privacy,

or your decency,

to give or provide unfinished portraits of yourself

is the safest & most considerate way to go:

because, between you & me, most of our secrets

are not as shameful as we think,

not as interesting to others as they may appear to us

managing the words or secrets that come out of our mouths

is just as important as managing our finances

or postponing till a later date our debts,

our face-to-face meeting with the condescending inner child

it’s definitely not okay if others see you as an open book,

as a whore (since this is the kind of language in which

i seem to explain myself best)

it’s unhealthy & unsanitary; it hurts the other person

& you tend to lose credibility, flexibility

forthcomingness is overrated, if you ask me,  

& a risky proposition,

not to mention that it comes along with a significant number

of penalties or hidden feeds: what america is all about;

it ought to be a measure of last resort  (like bungee jumping

or writing poetry)

so do not bring up for the umpteenth time the matter of trust,

do not get offended whenever i keep things to myself,

whenever people dear to you

do not share everything about themselves:

none of us is supposed to

c. a. campos, 2011