2025
Fine Lines
On Language, Pollution, & Critical Consciousness
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Fine Lines
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Artists with the front facing persona - it's an illusion
Like how you're "fine" walking Upright with that brain contusion
We lean on singular words with multiple meanings,
but we don't know how to use them.
I'm fine!
Girl, yes you are!
Fine I'll pay the fine
Half of those are abusive
We never get the full picture lost in our confusion
Race, gender, sexuality, people excluded
You fight - your black he's white they're Asian
This shit, much more deep rooted
Another word to work out
Our minds, our bodies, our communities are polluted
minds run Proprietary software
What sells? Not photovoltaic cells
Biology tells a different story about the binary
But without an education, you're more worried about a job at the refinery
Not the fucking finery
One more time with that one again,
Seemed the ostentatious are always winning,
but you vote them into office - complain after they win
Iceberg baby this shit runs deeper
Deeper then the Mariana trench
Pass the last stop on that ghost train haze creeper
We're in Dante's realm now
Yeah, you can call this a heater
Do you mean hot as in heat
or hot as-in spicy?
I mean without gun control I'm talking about under your seat
Calm down just breathe
Why didn't you teach me that when I was five years old
Before the anxiety grabbed me by the neck and stabbed me in the chest
Daily, weekly, monthly did I say by the minute
by the fraction of a second and every quantum moment
that lies within it
Hmm listen kid
You can beat the drum but the battlefields are different
Watch out for codependence learn to be independent
A mind that can contemplate
a mind that thinks outside of what it's told is useful
Grab a plane ticket, go spend a ruble
Then a rupee, then a yen then a franc,
Then come tell me if that Frank was from France
or from Liechtenstein
And then you can tell me which one you like better
cause you will have seen the world
and your eyes are more open
and brother you can enter
Reflection
This poem operates at the intersection of linguistics, systemic critique, and consciousness expansion. The opening salvo—examining how the word "fine" carries three distinct meanings (emotional state, physical attractiveness, monetary penalty)—becomes a lens for understanding how language itself can be a site of violence. "Half of those are abusive" indicts not just the uses of the word, but the systems that weaponize ambiguity.
The poem's architecture mirrors its content: rapid shifts between topics (mental pollution, economic inequality, political complicity, gun violence, anxiety disorders) create a vertigo that reflects our fragmented attention in late capitalism. "Proprietary software" running in minds suggests consciousness itself has been colonized, programmed to value profit over sustainability (photovoltaic cells vs. refinery jobs), luxury over substance (finery vs. refinery).
The Dante reference is crucial—we've descended beyond the Mariana Trench (Earth's deepest point) into the nine circles of hell. The triple meaning of "heater" (temperature/spice/gun) compresses three forms of violence into a single word, demonstrating how language can simultaneously reveal and conceal brutality.
The poem's emotional core emerges in the anxiety passage: "Why didn't you teach me that when I was five / Year old / Before the anxiety grabbed me by the neck." This personal wound becomes universal—the failure to teach children emotional regulation, to prepare them for systems designed to destabilize.
The final movement shifts from critique to prescription. An elder voice enters: "Hmm listen kid." The solution isn't revolution but expansion—of geography (travel through currencies: ruble, rupee, yen, franc), of perspective, of critical thinking. The wordplay on "franc" (Swiss currency) and "Frank" (a name) asks: which Frank? The one from France or Liechtenstein? This seemingly simple question demands geopolitical literacy, cultural awareness, direct experience.
The poem concludes with "enter"—once your eyes are open, you gain admission to a different level of consciousness, community, possibility. This is the password. Not passive consumption but active engagement with complexity. The entrance requires work: contemplation, independence, travel, critical thinking. Only then can you see beyond binaries, beyond proprietary programming, beyond the fine lines that constrain us.