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The Reaction Against



Not everything that is pleasing is true.
Not everything true is pleasing.

If only affection were as ubiquitous as stupidity,
recasting the inevitable as desirable
(the tentative, as hard to love as the inevitable),

an unwinnable game
in which you're invested in losing
as well as possible

with calculated passion,
greetings of aggression,

wondering
what you're done with
when you're done.

Fascinated and repulsed by history in equal measure,
discounting human achievement is so easy—too easy?

There's something beautiful about the truth,
but how necessary is it, are they,
beauty, truth?

All poems are written and copyrighted by Michael C. Rush.
None may be republished or repurposed without permission.