I like the first part, L and the idea of the metaphor of strum-out yo-yo but 'git' a bit lost in the unfurling rant. Like particularly the lines 'as if a trap had been banged wide/open unexpectedly beneath' which nails a yo-yo's action and asks a reader to reconsider it.
Are they meant to be inverted commas surrounding 'him' in line 2 and 'that' in line 7? They come up as asterisks in my post anyway.
B
> On 26 Aug 2015, at 11:14 pm, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I saw a man hold a made thing
>
> twined in tough cord which held *him* straight
>
> as a prisoner might show itself
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> in restraint. He threw the odd device
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> downwards into the air. It rolled
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> out its tether backwards dropping
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> till *that* jerked hard at its ending,
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> the escapade suddenly dead,
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> as if a trap had been banged wide
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> open unexpectedly beneath
>
>
>
> yet the round body pulled itself up
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> upwards into a salvation
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> from whence it took the drop again
>
>
>
> like clay birds all day flying up
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> identical factory products
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> without their own conscious power
>
>
>
> or a dog fetching a ball more times
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> than it can count, self-persuaded
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> that it's autonomous and free.
>
>
>
> “This,” said the man, with nonchalance,
>
> “reminds me of my staff at work.
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> They do not realise control
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> is beyond their hands. All they want
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> is the string and how it works right here
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> with them dependent on its knots
>
> which they cannot retie. Weak minds,
>
> each self-aware, they believe; so proud;
>
> but hindered by what's possible,
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> planning regime variations
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> while they are first governed, and then
>
> let loose, completely, on a leash.
>
> What they eat, what they drink, we sell
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> with ease; what they decide, I have
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> suggested to them many ways,
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> as I too am chained entangled
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> stapled by hard steel to constructs
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> I have been offered and agreed
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> to love, to keep the money thick
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> in my wallet, big coins weighing
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> towards the buried iron core
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> of limited understanding...
>
> What do I know of final things?
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> I'm sure I am retained. Thus I
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> am not enslaved. I do enslave.”
>
>
>
> Thus, you, unfriend, who always said
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> the best thing to each one of us
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> to keep us obedient, are now
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> neither a yoyo nor player;
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> a fake; a manipulator
>
> who reworks incoherent rage,
>
> which might, just, make sense; but doesn't.
>
> There is no part original
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> in what you have written or said.
>
> There is scant substance to your speech
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> with much meaningful malign intent...
>
>
>
> You fooled me, yes; and many more,
>
> till I grew weary of your moods...
>
>
>
> Some may come yet and hear utterance
>
> that builds up some implications
>
> according to what you purport...
>
>
>
> You are a disappointing git!
>
> All your words mean rather little;
>
> and, what you say, you've said before
>
> twenty years ago; further still.
>
> Many were impressed by your talk,
>
> but I think them to be trite fools
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> for all they speak in a register
>
> reserved for smug theologians;
>
> building their own theory coffins
>
> while, as with all systemic faith,
>
> they malign bodies politic.
>
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