I do not want to be Mrs. Dalloway

I was reading Woolf

When fear crawled down my neck

I thought of Kenya

And the passport

Misplaced at Heathrow –

An international mishap.

I’ll go down to the Hampton

P.O, reclaim myself.

I filled out the missing paper

And saw the scene unfold ahead.

Oh, what a larceny!

Someone took it,

Assumed my identity,

Is now wanted for acts of

Terrorism – jihad

On the Ethiopian state

Next door

Could have been

A Somalian extremist

Behind me

in the boarding line.

Kenya will not be safe

I will not be safe

I’ll go.

Unless I’m arrested.

I picture two men in black

Suits and glasses, slyly

Pulling me aside.

“Ms. Esposito,

come with us.”

When my name is cleared

They’ll warn me,

“You’re never to leave America

especially to go to Africa.”

That would kill me.

I’d settle after a time

And marry that rich conservative

Forget all the reasons for anything,

Everything.