She learned through peers and social media
that birthdays are profitable.
That by giving a bit of PII to retailers,
she could convert free text fields into dollars.
Birth dates into scoops of ice cream,
bags of chips, buckets of soda.
And she found this to be an epic bargain.
So she added her name,
her day of joining the planet,
her postal zip to a dozen forms.
Those bits and bytes
of her identity whooshed off into the cloud
— and unseen overlords,
who to-date have proven
so trustworthy of the consumer’s welfare.
Later, in the afternoon,
once all her incoming celebration emails
had hit her account,
she convinced her Dad
to drive her around town,
to cash in on her work.
She collected mint chocolate chip
and hibiscus limeade
and hot tortilla chips
and free guacamole.
She grabbed a dollar off a decaf latte
and 10% off plastic toys
at the local big box store.
And she felt victorious,
glorious, smart and savvy.
And I wonder,
what did she trade away,
with all her data?
For the hard serve
has been metabolized,
the drink cup recycled,
the chip bag discarded,
the plastic toy forgotten.
But her identity?
That, however,
will live on in others' hands forever.
