Paper, Rock and Scissors

じゃんけんぽん

Animals arguably know a bit more than us men.
Machines too. Man-made contraptions
But flawless they unfold, very easily shacking up
With their own species, other appurtenances.

Quite as apologetic as assertive, man ignores
How to thoroughly use his superior knowledge; sheer
Interaction, inferior, beasts or machines don’t.

They yield strict causal chains, kinds of bondages
While free man’s free mind moonily associates―skill of a
Genius, ruffling through another’s hair. Sentimental. What for?
To acclimate and placate a produce of enslavement?

Dislike it or hump it: bull-legged man
At best comes up to the mark in the sexual. Apart from that

There’s not much naturalness in man’s achievements
But some naturalness in machine’s achievement
Not to speak of beast’s tautological naturalness.
But once smooth beast or machine
Meet a higher force of nature
They fall prey or simply fail. Man doesn’t, he
Somehow copes, he
Then almost falls prey or almost fails.
Weak, exaggerating man, overchallenged
Though he is, back-bouncer boy is the toughest of tumblers.

Met you smooth beast, quite inferior force of nature
Met you smooth beastly machine on my victorious journey
And immediately felt prey and failed.
Shall I resurrect? Will statement work for me?
I stand corrected but stand, confident in
Genius’s proven superiority. There is
Nobody on board to contradict me.
In their unnatural triumph, beast and machine beauty
And gun keep mum.

March 25, 2011







[detail of a photograph by toyohara]