Very stimulating. I am reminded of the mending wall by Frost, of meditations by Aurelius, of Cats Cradle, and Feersum Enjinn. And of the old server mantra of accept the traffic of others but watch the traffic you transmit.

Of this lyric “ And I'm no different, I live in conflict and contradiction But it can be so beautiful When I don't reject what lies within It's beautiful the way agony connects us to the living I think of the world when I hurt, and keep on existing in the Now”

Am I on the right path by thinking it talks on the strange symmetry in the hearts of man? (fearing the darkness and scraping away at the edges with fire - Rei Ayanami) waves and troughs, prickles and goo, anxiety is thinking one of them will win (Alan watts). This dastardly act I do only for good reason! (Someone’s ladder?) A seemingly endless cycle of justification?

Give unto Caesar, which bokonon paraphrased as Caesar doesn’t know what’s really going on.

The vine produces fruit and the wild boar has bad breath.

Is it the dangers of being locked in idealised or normative interpretations and advocacy?

I don’t think it’s what it’s trying to talk about but I’ll mention on talk of those best able to murder, those best at warfare, they may preach peace because it is they that do the killing, someone else decides the victim. Your poem maybe is of them trying to keep their monopoly.

And so it is that your poem talks of the other, beware them, do not believe their lies (write it on your Polaroid for when you forget later - memento) but it is really talking of yourself, you aren’t better than them, when you are sure of yourself you have lost, when you are unsure of yourself you have lost. If your aren’t to be fooled by others you need only stop fooling yourself? (Which maybe can’t be done haha)

Not sure how it fits in but I’m also compelled to add from a beautiful mind: you watched a mugging John, that’s weird.

Let me save you said the monkey, putting the fish safely up the tree.

Also, beware them all you like, your still stuck with them.

Gosh, actually I’m lost. I grapple with this a long time, inwards spirals infinitely, outside doesn’t stay still long enough. It’s best not to get involved. Don’t mention that you know Spanish, make friends with strangers at the bus stop.

Is this a quote or something? The takeaway seems to be to beware of everyone.

The Genius of the Crowd by Charles Bukowski

I didn't immediately understand the line "beware those who are always reading books."

Perhaps the line means that people who read a lot are judgemental and likely to hate others. If that's the case, I don't really buy it, because people who truly read a lot are probably too busy reading to hate people not in the books.

I think it’s more about living more in a literary world than in a real one. As a person with book worm tendencies, I understand quite well how it can be harmful.

Would be good to credit Monsieur Charles Bukowski.