(Part of a thread to share poems or poetry-adjacent writing as discussed here.)
fragments of the truth
each seeking a pure soundbite
that can go viral
each one concealing
another fragment that is
off-message, suppressed,
too complicated
to live in any soundbite
that can go viral.
I’m contrarian.
I want to hear all the sides
ponder all half-truths
even uncool ones
the kinds that get you ignored
or simply cancelled.
If this is a game
seeking clicks, pure and simple,
I’m on track to fail.
I wear readers out.
Possibly I know too much
for anyone’s good.
But I am vain, too.
I keep looking for a voice
that can do it all:
concise but nuanced
focused on what’s most needful.
Just the right amount
of analysis,
examples, reader-friendly
chatty folksiness
while still insisting:
What you can’t see can hurt you!
You do not need me
just to restate things
that “we all already knew.”
You need me to say
“that is what you see
and mainly you’re not wrong…yet
think about this too.”