The Pathology of History

The chapters expunged
and the pages rewritten –

the text of the unconscious
beneath the spectacle of truth -

can still be read elsewhere:
in the symptoms of the body,

in the stock of memories,
in the heroic retellings,

in the mannerisms, crude wit,
and paper-thin traditions,

in the deft distortions made
by the edits and revisions,

in the words that are chosen,
and in the silences in between,

over amber waves of grain;
under my country tis of thee.

- The Fool
- photo artist unknown 2008
first published Feb, 3. 2008