A Vulnerable Writer

Imagination bled for the world to see

Signed with anonymity

Pennames, pseudonyms, non de plumes

Concocted concealments

Of true identity

Shielding character with timorous walls

From countless public scrutiny

An explicit avowal of anonymity

Breached implicit bonds

Secrecy cannot join

Facelessness

Unexposed black and white

Allusions of diffidence

Cowardice

Never a reader’s respect will wane

For exposed writer’s vulnerability

Photo: Courtesy of Rodney Smith