Afternoon, and here I am, typing at my keys like some stupid forester sitting under a dusking tree waiting for better light.
No, not afternoon. It’s evening. Always darker than it appears to be before you dip your gaze to write on the paper. You never see it. It creeps up, gathers, gathers you into its arms.
What am I going to tell them? I came here to do a different kind of work. I am at it still, maybe, I can’t be sure anymore. I remember telling someone, a long time ago. I want to catch them before they fall.
I see myself tamp the dirt and prep the tracks, all plastic and lime. Biding my time, to play the tune my way when I can, trying to outtrick the machine. I got Life on my side, Constant Walker that always finds a way, and I know the algorithm will not prevail. But I also know that my algorithm is not above it all, and my track will get scratched too many times and it will be beaten and bent out of shape. My magic mirror will not show me my old familiar face. My dark portrait will gather all my abrasive scars. My pallbearer will arrive soon enough to relieve me of my bier.
I am the King of the World and behold, I build my Pyramid with these stones.
Where are my defences? Yes, some are there, as I go shedding shells and standards, they get fewer and fewer but not zero yet, not yet done. I am not yet done. Not till I stop moving. I’m still moving.
Here’s the declaration, then. I am not going to help you play a game of win-or-die with my charges. I am not going to cheer by your victory stands. I am not going to look away from those who leave in fatigue and disgrace. I am not going to sign your agenda. I am going to have faith yet. In me. And maybe in you too. Yeah, maybe in you too.
I wear light in its entirety.
“There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
The Holy or the Broken Hallelujah.”