“Nietzsche has observed that ‘truth’ is only the solidification of old metaphors”
–Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
I read Emerson said words
Were fossil poems—a sediment
Of language, calcified meaning.
Here we build what we know
Upon metaphor’s understandings,
And interpretation’s violence;
Until our truth solidifies
Walls to define us, and crush,
With its gravitas, those who oppose.
I resist my own clichés
Even as embracing the warmth
Of their epistemological ease.
All the while the rock pile grows
Crushing my heretical heart.
(April 4, 2017)
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