UN-IM-DIS-DE

not-not a poem

When you start to stop,

would you dare to hold back?

When you free yourself at last,

can you recognize the new cage you have locked yourself in?

Do you see the way that you are suspended in space

as you swim against the current?

There is no escaping this place where we belong.

We forget to remember

that we only lose

to gain again

and everything gained

will eventually be lost.

A truth hides in every lie

disorder can never be controlled

disaster written in the stars

disease the unrelenting enemy of comfort. 

We subtract meaning

— order, aster, ease — 

through the addition of sounds

— un-im-dis-de — 

I wonder —

What is it that must be destroyed next

to build the new world?

Or must we build first,

with the intention of imagining

something better, different, new?

Pre-fix only to post-collapse.

When we add to create

we inherently negate.

Must we make yet another world 

that only seeks to destroy itself?