not on us
it is often said
‘everyone likes to feel needed’
but why, then,
do so many of us pretend
it's the other way around?
that we are, indeed,
independent, autonomous beings
perfectly content
faring on our own
without the help
of anyone else?
or stoutly refusing
to admit acquiescence
to any particular philosophy
or teaching?
could it be
that this strange dichotomy
this oddly frank admittance
in the middle of a stage play
devoted to the display of indifference
is, in actuality,
a way of letting ourselves
off the hook?
of breaking the 4th wall
and fanning the flames
with a whisper
that keeps the game going?
'It's OK', it seems to say
'to admit that you're sick,
because everyone else is too;
we're all in it together.'
but it is exactly this
that keeps us from breaking into
our true autonomy
and serves as the glue
fuelling the ever-expanding
constriction
beating
beneath the infrastructure
of all our human institutions
when examined closely enough
it is a condition
baffling in its implications
for the health and well-being
of both the individual
and the collective
LIKING to feel NEEDED
is, in fact, the ultimate declaration
of our NON-BEING
a testament
to our victimhood
in the face of an indifferent universe
creating purpose for itself
through structures of 'health'
that feed on 'sickness'
and 'justice'
that punishes the 'wicked'
and 'wealth'
that tumbles bodies
across lines
meant to unify,
not divide—lines, now nearly covered
completely
and it is this
absurd little game
—the domain of apes, really,
that keeps us raging
in one way or another
against those rare, enigmatic figures
that show up
from time to time
and do completely, ineffably
mirror the emptiness
of the universe
embodying all we've declared holy
—and all we declare openly
to be achieving—
in their indifference
to the unspoken authority
of all our human neediness
yet showing
DISPLAYING
with every CHOICE they make
the heart inherent
of a wider surrender
to a higher order
of symbiosis
and so, of course,
we open them up
and send them on their way, again
in one manner or another,
—as long as they are far enough away from us—
in order that we don't endure
one more moment
of their garishness
and then
some time 'later’
in true accordance
with our devotion
to the ongoing structures
of our pathology
we repent
and erect monuments
and writings
that seed the growth
of yet more institutions
and their thronging followers
who will inevitably grow cold
in the expanding shadow
of their image
as it fades
on the horizon
is it prophetic, possibly?
did they not warn us
to look out for it?
did they not, in fact, admonish us
in the hopes of helping us to see it coming?
who knows.
but whatever the case
it is, at the very least,
dishearteningly predictable.
...then again, it's not on us, is it?
Image: Aha-Soft