The Age of Theory

Here in the Age of Theory,
in the glorious house of the New Fade,
where nothing is good enough
and nothing lasts
(or so we desperately wish to believe)
nothing is true unless we think it is
and it requires no more vigor
to believe in
than to believe in it,
all while we mock
anything that was thought before

Here in the Age of Theory,
in the glorious burning facade of the New Fade,
where fads cycle fast and appear permanent
until they aren’t,
we’re furious with everyone and everything
except ourselves, 
untouched by malice,
pure & true & good,
unlike everyone and everything else

Here in the Age of Theory,
in the fastidious New Fade,
where we borrow ideas from other ages
without knowing how they apply now,
let alone how they did in ages past,
we have lost our enlightenment,
hold deep convictions,
burn at wits end,
burn the heretics in effigy,
the great price of progress marked by indemnity,
like some rough beast,
scorned and yet still slouching,
but mostly in comfortable chairs 
and shouting unheard but read voraciously

Here in the Age of Theory,
we blame it on frustration 
and tear down a nation
fifty years running
or perhaps one-fifty 
but are absolutely convinced 
it’s that guy’s fault,
that farce disrupting everything
in ducktails,
his cowlick a mockery
of arrogant pretention.

We don’t even know,
here in the Age of Theory,
what the scientific method is anymore;
being wrong is a virtue so esteemed
it has to be right

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twenty Years

Twenty years later and this is still the only day in American history like this. (Except the burning of the White House, War of 1812, 8/24/14, a response to York.) That is what  we felt in those days. In WWII this is what Europe looked like, a continent. This is what it looks like when war happens. This is what traumatized  a nation. In twenty years  many things have happened since. Incredibly, it took no time at all to forget how that day felt. No time at all, and there were people who argued it was staged. That’s the world we live in. No time at all and politicians started thinking, “We will lose power if this remains the narrative.” No time at all and the reality of a war became a preamble to twenty years  of claiming it was America that turned aggressor. Twenty years and they still work to identify  the bodies. Twenty years of victims. Twenty years, a lifetime  for a new generation  born after and growing up in the shadow of fallen towers. Twenty years after a morning in which I wa
Read more

The Rat Was In the White House

The rat was in the White House. Vile, Diseased, Infested, Vermin. And yet for all that There was also Something exotic, Challenging every preconception, And sometimes that Provokes Inspiration, Shaking loose The doldrums, The humdrum, The routine. It was an interesting four years. And it will be For many years To come. History won’t soon Forget. Although, You know, Stranger things Have happened.
Read more

All My Favorite Colors

I don’t know, I’ve never particularly  Had a problem Integrating the world. But that’s the problem That so often happens  For others, And I think It’s the biggest problem. It’s great to know How things are different  But to keep them Locked up in little boxes, Separate, Apart, Deliberately, Defiantly, Angrily, Defensively, As if something will be lost... And I get it, Sometimes  There have been efforts To lose identity  By force, To integrate By eliminating  A minority’s features, And that was always wrong. But it’s also wrong To repudiate The melting pot. It’s wrong To rob yourself Of the ability To embrace unfamiliar things Because you think  It might threaten  The integrity Of what you’ve got. But listen, You have no integrity If you fear such a world. You lose far more Than you retain If you hide from The possibilities. If all you experience  Is an echo chamber Then eventually  You go deaf. So this is a message For all my sisters and my brothers.
Read more