nonsense engines
our world has become
a vast engine for producing nonsense
I can’t make much of it
I can’t suffer like this anymore
we are immaterial in our efforts —
we are fabricators in our labor
it’s become easier to pretend-to-make
than make-pretend…
no one sleeping on the streets is morally broken,
the poor are not poor because they lack initiative…
you must remember this: never underestimate
the power of institutions to preserve themselves…
to some extent, all we do is manipulate abstractions —
don’t know if I can take on these absurd levels of causality
I’ve been a symbolic evaluator of language much longer
than I ever intended to be…
someone once told me I better practice breathing water
but it’s the water I’m swallowing that I sometimes
forget even exists…
the creators of the player pianos
were wrong, we can handle our own leisure,
just give us a chance at it… we’ll make the most of it,
I swear! subvert basic truth all you want,
but I am not infinitely malleable, I can only bend
over backwards so much and so often…
I sense in you a deep dissatisfaction
a contradiction of logic and purpose
so don’t tell me to go away!
don’t tell me to put the beast to rest
we can’t let all the lightbulb-heads vanish
you can’t let the bright thoughts diminish
you can’t let your purpose fade
you see, thinking is what we should be paid for
don’t buy the myth that to be a good person
you must be busy all the time,
busy faking, busy…
