ONLINE INTERVIEW

Scrambled through my address book

Unemployment rate fast growing

Solace now I seek even in the waves

A click after I logged in

“ASL” came the first lines

“26, Male, does it really matter?”

“Business not dating” came the response

There was a pause

I must have unveiled my location

“… is typing a message”

“Complexion, work rate and experience”

“No bearing with the ad”

On second thoughts

“Dark as coal… proud I am of my race though

‘Even though they say that my back is bent

And broken under the weight of humiliation’

Rest I murder to feed my bill-fold.”

“LOL” he managed to type

“Not even in the face of poverty and backwardness?”

Frustration begins to set in

It doesn’t seem like business after all

“That instilled by your race

Whilst you savage the spoils of colonialism”

“What about the Rwandan, Somalian, Darfur genocides,

The diseases, the corruption?”

The aggression was clear and a match I was.

“To the benefits of your capitalists

Intents to erase a race for fear

Pharaoh once served a model.”

“My trade value not competitive enough

Still the lineage of my descent

Commands the world’s respect.”

Silence engulfed.

Time encroachment sensed

“Buzz! Buzz!! Buzz!!!”

There was dead silence.

Has my server gone dumb

Or was it my online manager?



Richard M. Richards