these days everything bends toward conspiracy

—the wealth of nations the family bound
by democratic ideals as applied the outliers
united in opposition to time’s flow
the problems the solutions the stories
that recount what is or is not yet known—

all at once both natural & unnatural

—we are each of us a conspiracy of tendencies
the adopted pragmatic mischief of semi-
conscious cellular life an organized adventure
in unification toward culture toward elevation
a demonstration of the conscious capable self—

creeping toward the malaise of masses

—gentle pleadings the furtive requiem
the sense of collective thought emerging
from shared loss & fear of loss
aggressions born of the silence of merciful fibers
the full size of the presumed world—

the absence of weapons the meaning of absence

—a vaunted conspiracy of properties
possessions intercessions the wake of first reticence
retiring gazes the quality of light
forgotten submerged pushed aside collapsing
under effervescent imaginings—

the quiet of all that has not come to be

—conspiracy of visions coalescing into
personhood the first & most recent place
the center of time as perceived
as time the whole of converging perceptions
bound by democratic ideals as applied—

& witnesses unaware of their leadership

• First published autumn 2002 in Silva: Vol. 1, No. 1: Balance