Why Say “Not Now” When You Mean “Not Ever”?

I used to delete unwanted emails
like. It. Was. My. Job.
Every morning I would power through
my three email inboxes
and madly delete the unwanted,
poorly translated SEO solicitations,
the worthy causes that are worthy,
but no longer my causes,
and the products that I may have
purchased once,
or thought about purchasing once or
randomly visited their website once a long time ago
only to be stalked
within an inch of my e-life by their relentless emails,
with their desperate pleas to
“buy me”.
Lordy, have some self-respect.
Clicking that delete. delete. delete. button
gave me a (false) sense of power and a(n even falser)
sense of accomplishment.
It may have been okay if it had stopped there,
but the messages popped up all day
forcing me to play whack-a-mole with the delete button
every free moment.
Over the holidays, when I had time to waste,
I started unsubscribing to every message
I no longer wanted to receive.
It took a millisecond longer to turn not now
into not ever.
Now, I open my inboxes and it’s like opening a
newly Ikea-organized closet.
There’s room to breathe and (nearly) every message
is one I actually want to read.

Let’s Be Interesting Together

HCC Extra Shot: Forbes Article