Call/response — Summary

Dave BontaAnxious

a survey is asking nothing

I answer nothing for fear of it being me

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Two short stanzas, and a strange situation: a survey that asks nothing. There are no questions on the page, yet the speaker still replies with nothing. The reason comes in the last line, where they say they answer nothing "for fear / of it being me." The speaker seems to worry that any answer, even to a blank question, would reveal who they are or pin them down.

The title, "Call/response," sets up the exchange. A call goes out, and a response is expected. Here the call is empty and the response is silence, so the usual back-and-forth collapses into a kind of standoff.

The mood is wary and quietly unsettling, with a touch of dark humor. The speaker feels watched, or at least measured, and chooses to hide behind a blank. The poem suggests that being identified, even by an empty form, can feel like a risk. It leaves us wondering what "it" is that might turn out to be the speaker: a data point, a label, or a self they would rather keep private.

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