Mercy Seat Poem by Patti Masterman

There's always something new
Clicking along the familiar grid lines
There's the autobiographical show-and-tell
One link later, and zipping along the super highway,
Straight into the inner sanctum-CLICK! unguarded
Arc of the Covenant: Glowing precise bits and bytes
Would-be authors; each with their own
Age-appropriate foci, a work in progress
Endlessly boiling tidal pools of egocentric ravings;
Anxious, demanding, irreverent, playful-

O Anonymous One:
Do you feel me here groping inside your Holy of Holies
Perusing your innermost, sepulchered secrets
I lounge on your sacred altars, inspecting soul-searing pledges
And do you care, and does it excite you
That I can re-experience your most private emotions
Re-animate and touch again, the damp relics of intimate moments,
Examine midnight yearnings and recriminations;
Find forgotten motives, in shadows of fierce longing
Here be culture and superstition, fear and expectation
I extract a magnifying glass for a closer look-

Now that I've been invited inside
I get to see the places you inhabit, inside your own head:
Your past lovers, spooning, in fetal position;
Your occasional victims, outlined by footprints and chalk
Is it paradise or hell; marked by random spray paint
Or suicidal graffiti? Sometimes, I can't help cringing
Over sincere and careless words you've left here
But whatever I might think, you won't notice the open door
Or the flashlight beam that's playing:
No need to fear: your secrets are safe with me-