Amiri Baraka
THE TERRORISM OF ABSTRACTION
Why disappear & lie
We can see you
Why cover everything
w/ the sad victory
Of silence?
Why pretend to see
And only advertise blindness. Why
Claim a tongue, ears, a
Mouth & instead produce
A tiny heart too jittery
To beat. Why costume
Feeling with bone shine
& shallow glitter?
Why lie an “I” & vanish
Into parsed diction. Why
Enhance an empty place
With fantasy furniture
& say it is the truth?
Why not tell us something
Other than the sound effects
Of impotent evasion?
Why make believe poetry
Is about arrogant pretense
& social denial. Why
Try to trick us you can sing?
Why make words dull
To conceal passive
Submission to
Weak regret?
—from Rattle #37, Summer 2012
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