Jorie Graham: When the World Ended

    everyone woke up.
    It was a gorgeous sunny day.
    The lists with our names on them were laid out in the light.
    Someone straightened the pile.
    Are they complete I heard a voice ask
    though it was awfully far away from the beautiful
    day. Which was a masterpiece. Something’s apogee. A hegemon, a crystallisation –
    a gigantic re-beginning. We will all be trans-
    formed I heard myself
    think. Who am I kidding. The millions of years of prehistory
    hummed, they looked artificial in this newfangled
    light, all its techniques of solicitation, attraction, solidification
    throwing themselves wildly at the stunned
    archaic. It stared back. It’s rocky and does not
    expand. It’s earthy. It will take your gaze into its
    mastery. I
    love it. I want to wake up
    further. Please. I hadn’t said the word in centuries. Be still. Your social credits
    are being calculated
    as it watches.
    I want to touch it. I’ve never seen such solidity. That must be
    what a heart feels like, but the lights laugh all over it and it almost dis-
    appears. Do not deplete me. Do not empty me. I want to be
    more than a proceeding. Do not calculate me. Innumerable shadings
    shiver. I touch my larynx. We were not
    to speak. Avoid facial expressions while being
    assessed. Do not accidentally
    express
    yourself. Remember. Stay private. Can you do this?
    Analysis of the smile is particularly important. Do not. They try to ensure the
    smile threshold is triggered. Do not.
    During this same moment knowledge will be
    produced. It will mass up in you, quickening, organising. Do not.
    It will feel warm.
    It has tracers to detect consternation. Do not.
    It maximises addictiveness. To happiness. I feel it. Do not.
    It is scanning your iris. I beg you do not think. Let the years float. Abandon
    memory. I am your friend. I want you to survive. The penetration. The
    examination. Estrange. Don’t look, don’t see. But the clouds. Leave it
    unquestioned. Are we at the end. Is there still basic want and
    need. Shall I leave it. Leave it. Shall I turn, shall I be
    entertained. What is it that is saying I am here to stay. What is it keeps
    saying that,
    is it an unfinished speaker, or just a speaking. An existing
    thing? Provisional? Yes. Remain
    provisional. Don’t
    commit. Don’t
    participate. Do the face to face but avoid encounter. Don’t transmit
    words. Don’t engage in
    communication. But what is this kind of meeting.
    We are all breathing here together, are we not?
    We are all leaking our in-
    formation, our attentiveness. I do not want to look
    away, I will not look
    away, I want to promise, I will be
    saturated, here is my open eye for you, I will en-
    counter you, I will rub the personal surface, I will skim it. Oh it is
    frictionless. I will be yr
    user. Connect with me. How many things can we pay attention to at
    once. How many. Track me. Track my
    proclivities. Harvest me. My gaze is my gift. I give it, I give to you
    freely. I
    scrutinise.
    What are you drawn to.
    What are you drawn to.
    I want to feel autonomous. I will pay u
    attention. I will
    feel free. I will
    feel free.
    Track me.

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