the lies we chose to live inside

we are always wrapped up in the stories we have been told
those that have been repeated
until it becomes as familiar as a friend
we absorb them just by looking at images

like a gas
the US leaked
in through the TV
ultra mind control
remote
even people who never set foot there
but it occupies a space in one's mind
a virtual space
a lie
it's all lies
even the true bits

an image came up
an aerial view
and i thought, it's new york
that's manhattan

i think i even know the districts
i know it better than my home town
i've never been there but
that must be brooklyn off to the east
and queens up north
photo must be post-9/11
there's the empire state
there's the center of the universe

maybe the world is flat after all
how do you know anything?
and who the fuck are you anyway?

Questions to a future self, 2019

When the animals have been dragged
to final extinction,

will we retire them as mascots
of our prolific advertising,
or
will they linger,
as avatars
of species annihilated?

The elephant, tiger,
rhinoceros and leopard;
those familiar figures
of Kipling’s youth;
prevalent now only as simulacra.

Will we continue to play,
in the shadow of extinction?

Will we dance on graves,
with the ghosts of the toothed and clawed?

these hard knots in our timber

balls to naively trying to make it better
balls to increased production
balls to procreation
take a leaf out of an unwritten taoist classic
read its scattered characters at the bottom of a cup of tea
steeped in sugar and bad habits
just stop
full stop