mikeham

Recently human must
be qualified,
and so they fall
into various categories,
no longer earning their
birthright by an
earthly introduction, or
percentage of DNA,
its form and function;
nor by various secular laws,
or religious laws that
qualify and quantify
everything in the universe.

Now there are various
forms we must fill out,
various interviews and performances
we must attend;
various experiences we must
pretend to desire,
various personalities we must
become.

Once evaluated we become
a prized possession;
our human pedigree
delegated to the amoral
clarity of market forces:
martini or beer
skiing or fishing
photographer or hunter
artist or mechanic
- and so on.

We can no longer
just talk to each other
about our dissatisfaction,
our indignations,
the day shifts and nigh shifts
of our sucking culture;
work punishing memory and evolution.

Those are outsiders -
the market's clear sign of Other -
designated beyond the market stalls:
poor or refuge,
activist or empathetic,
sick or sick of it all,
questioners waiting for their answers,
doubters asking unappealing questions.

These misshapen undesirables
whisper memory and evolution,
imagine their human coiling,
whirling drive towards a shining city
of dream and human desire.

They too are assessing the human condition.