prose poem

Think of this as a call for piracy, or, if you prefer, a popular wine.

Think of this as a honeymaker; think of this as the corrupted version of what was a once holy glee.

I watch one night first Paddington, then Toy Story, then The Dark Knight (for balance).

But that's not right either: I read their scripts, their novelizations.

In the first two, I see brightness beyond belief, the kind that's hard to look at without hurting. In the latter, I see only a hurt mother's fear, thorned (as in timely flowers for the ascended, or the cry of a wolf), and all and only in the past.

This is probably the best way to discuss the future of the species.

I like cheese, you know. I'm allergic to it, but I enjoy it so much that I will eat it almost any time I am given the chance. The pain thereafter is torturous; too much and I can be incapacitated for days. There is a workaround, but it requires the tool of moderation, although I would argue it requires something quite the opposite: magnanimity.

This is, thus, the bane of my existence. This hurts and harms me, and although I know it is me hurting and harming myself, it feels like an external force, malicious and wrathful. It seeks to punish me by any means necessary, and there is nothing worse than that.

Let's be honest: Joseph Campbell was a fool. I don't even know that that's particularly controversial to say anymore, but I'll state it for the record. Joseph Campbell was a fool.

He got one thing right, though, and even that, he didn't get right at all.

Here's how I would put it, as he never could.

You forget everything in a mirror. The people who say that understand there is no way to win. That's why they call it a paradox.

But that's not right either: it's that you won the moment you began. This is a truth shared among us all. In fact, it's the only truth there is.

(Demolish a skyscraper, and you'll know exactly what I mean.)

When it's cold, I make mistakes: I go out unprepared and half of my body shivers, frigid. I grip myself vigorously to generate heat, but this is hardly protection. What I tell myself is that I should have paid more attention to the weather, but that's not right either: I should have paid more attention to myself.