THE PARADOX KEY

There is a key shaped
like a paradox
faced away from
each other like wings.

Opens the gates and
takes some long walks
amid other real
and neat things.

Many arrive in a swarm
all at once
through the door
and fall asleep all alone.

One single wolf
awakens and hunts
down all the sheep
over the phone.

\M/AGNEt

Dear Number

Think of the Internet
as a gigantic
all-encompassing
\m/AGNE⊥

that may have been
designed for one purpose
yet has certainly been
implemented for another

the mandated decree
that its sociomagnetism
be carefully directed
towards an all-too compliant
citizenship

to keep us
permanently
entrapped in
this prison
of disinformation

Make no mistake about it
There's no room for conspiracy, here

This all developed naturally
at an organic pace
fed by our own
psychological
demons

We created the Internet
to trap ourselves

The manifestation
of our psychowar
appears all too real

Just take a look around


Those micro-devices
everyone's fingertapping into
Magnetic plumb bobs
chrome lures
Shiny
barbless

This line and tackle bait
fully swallowed
keeps its users
hooked after
being digested

You better believe we eat it right up

So this \m/AGNE⊥
people call it a Prison
under construction

I think of it as a Church
obviously, there's no difference

We're trying to build a prison
(there is no They)
and we're succeeding

Because this is the real Church
The Thing that holds us in thrall
while we practice our ablutions
from the point of view
of a first person shooter

Because we are all information addicts
These words can not be read by anyone else
nor could they be penned by anyone else

The act of writing itself
is the very definition
of this imprisonment

We are all addicts and prisoners, here
While this is literally, in fact, the case
very few manage to escape this place

Of the few that do
nothing can really be said


This is not about them
It is about some folk
responsible for maintaining
the continued construction
of the information prisoncell
equivalent of an underground
railway out of here

One of the keys toward escaping
the prison is first becoming
a functional part of it

This key we all start out with
it's a given we've been imprisoned
all our lives

It's another thing altogether
having to admit it, however
That's why an overwhelming
majority of the populace
will never get to use it

The first key will usually rust
in a pocket

Good thing there's more keys
They're just harder to find

Life is like any prison environment
Factions, cliques, and gangs
become unavoidable

a perfect example of how mentality
can be more inescapable
than mere prison walls

To attempt to break out of the Church
is an attempt to break out of a mentality

To accomplish this, one must normally
acknowledge that thinking itself
stands in the way of revelation

That is why this is not a thought

It's a gesture

A file of letters

Handle with care

It cuts both ways

A track with rails

A car with handles

A letter of files

I saw a way out

You can too

Promise one thing

Try not to misunderstand me

and I'll see you out there

Outside these prison walls

+

FACTOR EIGHT

I

"Buddy, got an I.V?"

I want to refer to that state
I used to live in with a code name,
Because when I was in high school
Grady Cummins Gladys, all in lattice,

One needle darning in the dark, flashing
bleeds a room full of misfits. May we swap
I.Ds, pretty please? Why bother when
the warden looks the other way..?

Good questions. Dept of Corrections, indeed.
A motley trustee of self-sufficiency.
One rogue gang-state of the union.
Factor eight; an endless loop, caught on tape.

Hey dude, are you irate? "Course not, fool.
All the evidence piled up a quarter century ago
while you were still in school and they melted
down and sold their golden rule which we all bought

into hook and sinker--not to keep upon our mantelpiece
for a silent afternoon--but to resell on the stock exchange
of blood." Revenants, Inc. A daisy chain in thrall,
sacrificing hemophiliacs, "catching all our backs."

Poison First World countries, look the other way,
prisoners as cattle, you and the S.A!
Fatherly gentlemen, hair turning gray.
Pure innocence as a direct causative agent of evil.

II
"R U Kiddin' me, I got a BLOOD BANK"

Father and son didn't just break down,
the boy wasn't hung from a rafter in the town,
Daddy wasn't gutted by three poor recruits
hired by money launderers in dirty business suits.

Money didn't eat our attentions all away,
the Generation Gap is a copout, I say.
The only real problem facing us today
is not looking squarely back at it in the eye.

And the reason for that is we're all hypnotized.
In obeisance to a covenant among us,
with its own unique camouflage,
introducing a meme known as lame.

Spreads faster than a pack of gangsters
on speed, drawing a domino bead on each other,
locked in a stale mate cocked circle pit
with just enough bullets so every one gets hit.

It's not about alienation or a breakdown
in communication networks, or stepdads
being jerks, going to work, finding excuses,
not enough time, full plates, or busy ruses!

And it sure isn't about what anyone chooses.
Aloofness is an infection, reciprocated and amplified.
By not cluing each other in, we effectively have lied,
while doing each other in...oh well, at least we tried.

REAL LIES NATION

Powerlessnest. Leftbehind.
Worthinfinity. Stupidesign.

Solubullshit. Rearviewmeltdown.
Sincremental. Upsidefrown.

Resolutionary. Revoltacular.
Ritualisticketing. Inthebacksir.

Compostal. Aloofah.
Incarcerationing. Blindated.

Lullabaited. Captivaporized.
Lipstitched. Eyesordid.

Welltrussed. Sedativity.
ChainGangRapeDated.

Neoengendered. Killfactory.
Holywarren. Mirrorwaged.

Science Faction. Halfbelief.
Cultimate. Propheseedling.

Plantintinnabulation. Industribution.
Churchmancraft. Tribulationship.

Televessel. Devastationary.
Selfishing. Stagnational.

Dereservoirs. Incorperruption.
Chainlinking. Vomiterrarium.

Massproducking. Frankenchise.
Autolobbed. Merchandying.

Undiscoverdant. Mechanicolonization.
Posture-de-force. Corrupturing.

Horribladder. Infantricide.
Wirehung. Genostracize.

Unsunguent. Tortruism.
Awariness. Trutheism.

Instructshunning. MutAntcolony.
Socialis. Implicatered.

Masterbaited. Industracted.
Retrofated. Retribunal.

Executorrent. Judgmental Illness.
Issuewarrant. Insanitedious.

Tormentality. Suisadness.
Funereality. Apatheology.

WorldWarship. Disinterror.
Tyranniculmination. Secreterrier.

Packinheat. Overlard.
Opustule. Conscienshutup.

DELUSION ROULETTE

with dice for eyes
the odds you see
are lies quite high
the truth a crapshoot

image doubled roll
again spin the myriad
ball to when the sky
is a direct reflection

with one eye shut
one chamber empty
flip the safety off
from what you think

and go ahead
commit your
suicidal
wink

TREE

In the beginning was Hush.
Who begat Flesh.
Who begat Face.
Who begat Awe.
Who begat Claw.
Who begat Stone.
Who begat Steel.
Who begat Crimson.
Who begat T.V.
Who begat Shit.
Who begat Man.
Who begat Rat.
Who begat God.
Who begat Nothing
Who begat Always
Who begat Ever
Ever Ever Always
Who begat FLY
Buzzing for meat,
Worms, crumbs, anything
Humming skinless wings
In the womb's crust.

CARRIER SECRETS

I want a strange hibernation
to give our dream back

We'll have an attack
of rapid eye movement
in historical fact

They'll unfurl abominations
on our secrets' private lives
lighting up ceramic visors
of a nondegradeable kind

Unless we wake up on our own
not for an alarm is our history
sewn to the ragged curtains

of the wind, and not without
charm were our chances blown

in the mouths of certain
lingering friends