Suspended in the New Fade, Part 10

who's to say what's good poetry
especially in the New Fade?

at best it's a suspended judgment
seeing that hardly anyone but poets
seems to care

poetry is something of an
affected irony these days
worn like a coat

and who is even to judge it
anyway?  what criteria exist
to determine?

it's all subjective
unless of course it really stinks

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 9

some will argue that the real problem of the New Fade
is a permanent sense of arrested development

perhaps other cultures in other times enjoyed entertainment
but not to the degree that we do now

it might be argued that modern man exists to amuse himself
or is trying desperately to make that official

the greatest misery is to be denied the ability to do this
forced in the meantime to experience everyday misery

the world isn't any different today than it was before
and yet more and more people are allowed to wallow in fiction

fiction is something that has always been at the surface of reality
though now it is both a distraction and a way of life

to reconcile one's interest in fiction and their ability to ignore misery
has become the driving force of suspension in the New Fade

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 8

Ellah and her secret echo Elah
approve of all they see in the New Fade

this is not surprising
as they are the gods of these times

they are trickster gods
the only kind possible
shifting from moment to moment
so that whatever people currently believe
they amply represent

what else should a god do
when faith is so hard to find
in intangible things?

the rebellion against old regimes
continues to be against old methods
not so much what they represent
and this includes our religions

perhaps there is no name except El
where the world is constantly exploding
and the survivors are picking at the scraps
and each other in a mad scramble for life
empowered by the Sun to give themselves
a belief in the facade of their existence

in the shadow of the valley
rode a hundred disciples
ready to sacrifice themselves
in some crude bastardization
of events that happened
a hundred times before
but only once when it mattered

it's funny that all of this is so convoluted
even though it takes place
in a serious place on a serious earth

sometimes the apocalypse is the same as paradise

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 7

what if i were to tell you that
all this suspending in the New Fade
is a direct result of America?

well, in a certain sense
that's exactly true

the New World was so named
because it flaunted old rules
and created new ones

it was always outside of
common perception

its natives could easily
have been the equals
to any of those who
came to claim their land

yet they chose to exist
in the beginnings of the New Fade
in which time has no meaning

progress is a state of mind
a matter of choice
rather than the basic order of reality

the New Fade in the New World
became something of a curse
imported into the abstract concept
of globalization

all things are new here
just as they've always been
a part of the animal kingdom
even before there were animals

that's the nature of time
impervious and disinclined
to believe that humans need
anything more than
what they always had

which is what has always existed
before and after there was
the ground beneath our feet

it is our dubious acceptance
of our own rules that keeps
the New Fade alive

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 6

sometimes suspensions
are a matter of choice

this does not
necessarily mean
that they're
any more a good thing

but that's what
they can sometimes be

suspensions
in other words
can be many things
for many different reasons

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 5

"suspension" can mean a lot of things

and sometimes those connotations

can be related or they can be 

considered entirely on their own

this one is familiar like your own scent

something you've experienced before

and lived with and maybe it's not

what you would have asked for yourself

but you have it and that's that

this one sidled up like a friend

like a lover slipping back into old habits

after a break and expects nothing

to have changed but of course things have

and now what you want is maybe that lover

but with a few differences

there was nothing wrong before

it's just that maybe what you need now

is different from what you needed then

and if the lover is still faithful they're realize

that and maybe already be that and that's

probably they were your lover in the first place

because they change as you change 

this one sees maybe an inkling that

what you learned in the past has been fruitful

and multiplied and changed the rules of the game

which still operates with the same strategies

but now you're better prepared to play

and you'll know what to do and you will get

better results and you will perhaps make it work 

this time

well, as we always say, we'll see

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 4

sometimes suspensions end with terminations
but that doesn't make them anymore meaningful
only weird quirks of curious thinking

if you want to call it that