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ALL THINGS RELATIVE, III
from Exchange, Issue 3
by cusoa
Taj Alexander Mahon-Haft
Shirtless muscles ripple fluorescent institutional reflections of laughter in a cage, evidence of malnutrition not dietary regimen. Men find joyous whoops in echoes of bouncing cubes beneath gunmetal stairs framing our communal living room wagering Monopoly moolah representing ramen and deodorant. Plastic-clipped belts fail, state elastic-waisted denim sags beneath the weight of steel clips now only tattooed onto waistlines. Defanged and outside their hell, “demons” are hedons now lost. Have their hearts changed or were they always just seeking laughter?
Boyz ‘n tha Hood, studio set simulacrum which is reality which is the celluloid? All things relative to their realm. Who drives culture and who rides shotgun?
What’s the difference between urban “men” and suburban “boys”? Only a bullet to a BB, the sentence and the context, but their acts and points the same. Only the shade of the footage and the direction of the lens. Nighttime ghoul scream faces daylight are but toothy, goofy grins.
What’s a grand dragon but a ghost costume with a megaphone atop a whetted point? All things relative to their realm. Not all that is neutered has been fixed.
Self-defeat or destruction, self-destruction or defeat? Punctuation and context blend the words and erase boundaries. All things relative to their realm.
