COINCIDENTAL DISREGARD OF A LIE

Where are the convergent
figures of a Like
etchings in water closet
lewd doodles assemblage
bordering initials and dates
divided in spacetime as an actor and spectator are?
Or vibrant lantern nights
from sweating day through Luzhou wine,
Passengers winding avenues
Dull glinting fireworks
Pixelated sunbeams on the Yangtze.
Could these quintessences—
red molten buoys surge
numbing the lips—
Be carved    a subjected populace
out of an infinitely pliable block?
The algorithm of a landlord may count on
faceless compliant yield
while art can never net a fraction of a cent

On satellite view the percentages confirm
this vantage is the exclusive domain
of the dictatorship of all that is consumed,
Shells take on ghosts
Cash grows a taxable brother big
Consciousness sees flame flicker in a mirror
rather than participate in ecstatic revels
tracing volatile contact
in leaps around a fire.
A person no longer meets
as though Anarchy were a solution to
a future where the past
was only a conceit.