Up for None

Up for none and down for nothing
The fever that had gripped us dissipated
Leaving so suddenly that the previous scripts were still in place
Bewildering to perform the rote actions, even more pointless now in the light of day

Clear eyed though, we told ourselves fictions
That the fog had lifted for good
The new certainty, the new normalcy, we averred
That we would only deal with the lingering mist going forward
That the righteous hubris that just yesterday opened wounds could be foregone
Up for none, we played our role

Still, best to forget the previous direction, the wounds inflicted
Purification ceremonies have their chaperones, midwives to earlier indecencies
For shame's inconvenience is soothed by the passing of time
From fictions spring received notions
The balm of stories we tell ourselves to relieve the burden of ignorance

Rewriting the script with the assured rhetoric of the misled
Gaps, ellipses, things that are suddenly unmentioned
Unmentionable in the polite society of striving simians
Smothered by all too conventional wisdom, these truths
Up for none, then, and down for nothing

Up for none, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Keep on Movin' by Soul II Soul
• Don't Look Back by The Tempations
• Up for the Down Stroke by Parliament
• How Soon We Forget by Colonel Abrams
• Back to Life by Soul II Soul
• Up and Down by Ray Prim
• Forget Me Nots by Patrice Rushen
• Don't Look Back by Bobby Womack
• But Not For Me by Ahmad Jamal
• Up and Down by Horace Parlan
• Don't Look Back by Ramsey Lewis

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: culture, observation, perception, regret, Buyer's Remorse, poetry, toli

Writing log: May 16, 2023