Perception is not reality,
no matter how often we say that:

I did not see what I thought I saw,
hear what I thought I heard.
I just laid my inner upon my outer.

If I call out the perception
as being real,
I lie.

It’s not my fault!
This is how we are raised —
to crop the visual to template,
edit the audio to reduce clipping,
make the senses agree
with the interpretation.

In other words,
I know you
only as I allow you to be known.

It’s not my fault!
Can you see that?
If you don’t or won’t
you liar,
I will cut you as I would

a flower.
Let you be pretty
until you die and are tossed and forgotten.
I can cut another I prefer
later.

If only, if only. I won’t repeat that. Instead let’s
stop being so damned
American —

seriously.  Let’s just admit
we don’t know each other
no matter how long we’ve been
acquainted.   Let’s
act like we’ve been made stupid
by the damn culture.

We have.  And so

let’s pull the pole out of the center
of the earth and let the axis of perception
wobble —

when the world shakes
we’ll have to cling to each other
and maybe then,

we’ll get past it.