Before the before, there was an after,
and an after before that, which came before the after, after the after before; we are the after to our before, but someday to be a before before the before, of the before of the future after. Time is a wheel, rolling ever onward, but turning the same faces infinitely, now, before, and after. A Greek slave, through questions, discovered geometry, that which he had already known; for how could he not? Never taught. Wherefore do you weep? Whence comes these sorrows and these elations? Rejoice you for what? To what end have you given yourself to madness? From what chasm of the psyche does your willing blindness emerge? You revel inanely in myopia, for it is the only protection to the cancerous heat of the sun. Life is death. Take heed to the depression, take heed to the anxiety; do not fight, and it will be your guide. In a world gone mad, all measures of sanity become lost. There are those waking cold at night, wailing silently, discarded and deflating. We dull ourselves to live, with brief glimpses of the knowledge, pushed back at any chance, that there may be something within us so magnificent, dangerous, and powerful that we are as sword-playing children in the shadow of Agamemnon.
But do not despair: a Greek slave, from questions, discovered geometry;
that which he had already known. Whence comes this retreat, this caterwauling? Have you not everything you need, but for a set of eyes, and an inquisition? We are generations removed from the burning purity of reality, but we can remember how to see, for it is still here, for now. If you would learn what you are: the offices would gouge out their eyes, the luxury matte prisons of Broadway or Pine would crumble in upon their own dishonesty, the walkers would run, the runners would walk, the houseboats would run aground and the lakes would fill with cars. You are pasteurized; neutered; genetically-modified. You wither under their glow-lamps and take peace in the greenhouse ceiling: there, all growth is stopped short equally.
The door has never been locked, but you cannot turn the knob
with the gatherings between your arms. There may be no distractions,
for they will burn up in the light of the sun.
