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Continuing Struggles of the Post- and Avant- God
by Earl Coleman

They said : If you are truly innocent
then you won’t groan;
won’t bleed;
won’t drown;
won’t burn;
or flail about.
That’s called an -ology
a taut-
or tele-
although clearly it’s religious argument,
vintage 1492, biting its own ass.
It’s also shitty justice
since Inquisitors have simply got a job to do
much like Gestapo bully-boys, and that is
PUT THE QUESTION (the End already in the Works).
The folks who posit questions of that nature chant:
“We want the facts ma’am --
is it true you saw three demons on the stair
making out with half a dozen halo-ed angels
standing on tip-toe?”

When we truly are inquisitive
we want the facts of course
as they’re deduced by scientific method;
evidence (empirical);
statistics (not just Numbers);
and a time-line that’s not open to an opportune interpretation.
Such is called an -ology:
histori-
even bi- or ge-
these -ologies are intellectual
and aim to bite a bullshit artist in the ass.
Practitioners like us are seeking existential justice of a sort.
Above all we will never question the validity of YOU,
but only what you claim has come in view.
We chant: “Where are the double blind
(but seeing) tests, how much and who,
who witnessed it, how did the seed get into it?
hello my Flattop forebears of the Pleistocene.”

Yet if you’re one of those besotted with the FAITH
then you want none of these;
nine parables will do;
the who but not the why;
the Word;
and the Procrustean hard bedstead of the fabulous.
That’s called a theo-
just an old time -ology seeking always to become an –ocracy
although it’s clearly anti-intellectual
and works with snakes to bite us in the ass.
Practitioners are seeking Peace that truly passes understanding and never question how it came to pass that Eve and Adam had two kids, both boys, and what are we to make of their relationship to mom, the propagation that came afterward?
The FAITHFUL chant: “We’re here an instant only
and then gone to up above, and have a ticket
in our hands (so many tickets though
are counterfeit in this deceitful age)
reserving first row balcony.”

But if you’re gnostic (not exactly dia- nor yet ag-)
and not a TRUE BELIEVER (so few are)
you’re apt to want your ticket nonetheless;
your six degrees of separation from the nuts;
your badge of probity;
your place in the community;
your hedge against the possibility.
They call that -formed
not un- or de- but somehow re-
although Service of this sort is often service of the lip, at once political and business-like.
Practitioners (if we can call them that) get into bed with big-wigs, self-made men, and let themselves be guided by authority (in upper or in lower case).
They chant: “We live in light, that’s not to say enlightenment,
where safely we may walk this ground.
Because we’ve touched all bases rounding Third,
perhaps we’ll find a way to slide on Home.”

Then what of the politicos
when they lust truly for the glory;
power;
fame that lasts beyond the grave;
the thrill of ordering whole armies into play -

they call it not a science but an art: of what is possible;
of being short of pith
while sounding tall.
It is an art-form aimed at justice of no kind, but only margins of stupendous victory, using the credulity of those poor FAITHFUL set upon by the Inquisitors, and looking toward some CHAMPION to clear their pathway up the hill of DOUBT.
The spokesmen
for the FAITHFUL chant: “Put faith in me and I’ll uphold
your value system (though I myself
find déclassé your church and synagogue),
no matter that you’re anti-intellectual (me too);
no matter I don’t really want theocracy (few do).”


And in the end
the vision that we bring to how we cast our votes and live
is equal to the stimulation and the light we get and give.