Post by InklingElf on Nov 4, 2003 23:36:29 GMT -5
Bar-Coded @ Birth
“The past was erased,
the erasure forgotten,
the lie became truth…”
Cut a hole through it
Like woodcut names
on
fir trees
the erasure forgotten
to see where the rope ends
the sidewalk ends
and
reality meets
scattered here
scattered there
to my left an array of
white kids
black kids
mixed kids
the like
bar-coded @ birth
And to my right
A group of white-washed
Asian kids
speaking French
the lie became truth
I felt the earth
Beneath me
Spin on its silent axis
Candy on a stick
As Orwell continued
On his political speech
On the last days of 1984:
“Freedom is the freedom
to say that two plus two
make four. If that is granted,
all else follows.”
The past was erased
As I slipped
Into the doldrums of
Time and space
Sleep—cloak of night
I faced the
Industrial streets
Of San Francisco
Awaited the afternoon commute
Stale-bread faces
And hunch-back spines
seemingly vertically aligned—but not so
Beings
Passive as they went
What with these hands?
These ears?
These eyes?
To witness?
For idle
purpose?
What with this ghostly vessel?
These moving lips?
That utter no sound
A humble lyre
But a beating drum
In the deep
As I tread my way
Back to the black sun
Unkempt
And ornamented
False truth
Fate is like
The sound of waves
Foreboding
As the seraphim light
Emanating from
Lightly tinted windows
The voice of a thousand angels
From behind a shower door
There can be no mistaking it…
As I yielded to the thaw
The soft touch of spring
Finally made my realize how cold
My cheek was
And the lie became truth once more
--InklingElf
