(Or: Chasing the Dragon)

In the smart civilized past the discovering of what it means to pursue the winged serpent ;;;

It would be oracular from the back of a book, and tying the lyric to it would be a satisfaction and an artist’s triumph. In the new world version, search with an engine. Realize the imagery has been co-opted again and again down to the level of a lifetime movie, the dregs of the cinematic art.

What have we done.

This isn’t my world.

There is nothing transcendent or artistic about a heroin addiction anymore.

So I’m glad I don’t have one No upside and No Burroughs for the googlers in the sense that means.

It is not as though I am unaddicted but it is to symbols that remain arcane.

Spit on me; hipster fedora tipper jellyman NPC.

A fair trade when I puke back on your smug smock.

There isn’t any intoxication in this.

I could tell you of the elated pieces but there must be a protected altar where no heretic eyes see.

Everyone is a heretic now because it’s going to be a badge that signals independent thought or the appearance of it.

A gucci label for graduate students.

For a long moment I retreated all the way back to the place where art mattered.

Are the reasons why it mattered then better than the reasons that it matters now?

It’s a trick question and I’m not sure.

It even matters.