Is this what it is?
Turning over
every single moment
in my hands,
as if I can’t believe
that they’re real.
Simulation theory,
such a fashionable distraction.
How far along
does it become disassociation?
Is a schizophrenic
just breaking the fourth wall?
Does delusion
ever become doctrine?
Who’s to know?
Medically assist the suicide
of anyone too sick to survive,
but only if they want it,
or the regime finds it expedient.
What a helpful tool
for dealing with detractors.
Lock away the non-conformists,
and have them killed.
What a mercy
for the state.
So clinical and clean.
no blood,
just a drip in the I.V.
This is why
it gets harder every day
to take reality
seriously.
But if this is a simulation,
then whoever’s writing the code
must have suffered
some kind of stroke,
or massive head injury.
But maybe it’s not
an externally generated simulation.
Perhaps it’s more like
a group hallucination.
Maybe each one of us
is contributing
to the error that we see.
The war,
the pain,
the strife.
Maybe all this is real life
and each one of us
is just fighting to survive.
Trying to find our place
in this insane world.
Trying to make the best
of our turn.
Maybe it all matters.
Maybe this world,
this life,
and everything that happens after
will just have to wait
while we learn to muddle through
disaster,
after disaster.
Even if this is a simulation,
we ought to live our best.
We ought to play to win.
DJR – 2023
