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[In]Significance
We know nothing of moving freely.
Our work is transactional,
existing under the rule of friction and heat.
We are forever trading away pieces of ourselves
to a world that grates and burns.
But that’s not the way to say it, is it?
The way we reference “the world” —
the world I’ve just referenced
and the way I’ve referenced it —
does not name Earth.
It does not name a planet
nor does it indicate nature
nor the cosmic order.
“The world”—
as we like to use the phrase —
names our human environment,
the fabricated conditions of the human experience.
Limited. Self-centered. Self-indulgent. Narrow.
We are so used to maintaining
our critically singular views.
The grating, braking, heating friction of our environment
is a product of our own forces
that we cannot help but to exert back
onto ourselves —
back onto our manufactured world.