The New Fade 15

the New Fade
is morality turned on its head,
metaphysics of value
become gibberish,
discovering that the sandman
never sleeps,

and so the only sense
in a senseless world
is to create new definitions
that flatly contradict
the old ones...

The New Fade 14

the New Fade
is a lie told
so convincingly
that anyone who doubts it
is considered
an enemy
of the people

The New Fade 13

the New Fade
is corruption
that is successfully ignored
in the face
of manufactured scandals

The New Fade 12

the New Fade
is repeating the same mistake
but giving it a new name
and hoping no one notices

The New Fade 11

in the New Fade
the new censorship
is well-intentioned
but deceptive
conformity

The New Fade 10

in the New Fade
the ability to
contradict oneself,
whether knowingly
or otherwise,
becomes amplified:
Rowling misidentifies
her parallels,
Charyn forgets
his archetype,
and Richard Parker
is a tiger
who never considers
eating you...

The New Fade 9

the New Fade is
fighting yesterday's battles
while ignoring today's,
taking the moral high ground
without first securing it,
crying havoc
with laryngitis,
a mute shouting into a void
and believing himself heard

The New Fade 8

the New Fade is like
the Air Force Academy
in Colorado Springs:

chances are if you know it
at all you're familiar
with its ornate cadet chapel,
but visitors are treated
to something funnier first:

the main entrance
has a median
meticulously landscaped
every year,
but to either side
are grounds that are just as
meticulously overlooked
every year

The New Fade 7

in the New Fade,
El Dorado breeds eternal,
unicorns were never rhinos,
and Dr. Livingston?
we would never presume!
we would accuse!
J'accuse!

The New Fade 6

how did people remember
back then
when even the written word
did not exist?

how did they trust
the word of mouth?

well, back then
it might have been
more reliable,
I expect

now, all truth fades
to within recent memory,
which distorts quicker,
finds narratives
that were never there,
fades in and fades out,

like a heartbeat,
lonely and strong

the Old Fade counted time
in millennia;
the New Fade counts it
in milliseconds

The New Fade 5

The New Fade is defined
by the shift between
Billy Joel singing
"We didn't start the fire"
to somewhere along the line
a different song saying,
I don't know which,
that we did

The New Fade 4

I find it hugely ironic
that the only thing
that makes the New Fade work
is the notion of fake news
which recently has become a banner
for those who always benefit from it
to use against their enemies

The New Fade 3

When I conjured the New Fade
it felt like Dylan plugging in at Newport
but today it's more like Dylan's voice today
and how it's become the butt of jokes,
getting in the way of people taking him seriously

I mean, Bob Dylan?
Didn't he get his stamp of immortality?

Someone came up with
the Advanced Genius Theory,
where if a genius is discovered
it actually becomes harder
to appreciate their further genius
and maybe that's the New Fade

The modern era, which is to say the New Fade,
has become a cesspool of privilege,
taking all things for granted,
celebrating arbitrary achievements,
imaginary things,
because it's far harder to acknowledge
that Dylan is still Dylan,
that his voice is a choice,
and that it's not really about Quality at all
but Value

We're too focused
on our slings and arrows,
shooting the ladder
out from under us,
clinging to the precipice of history,
convinced of mediocre opinions,
anyone with two fists,
to let good things speak for themselves

We're in the protection business,
shielding inferior things
from the barbs they deserve
and muting praise
for all things that do

And that's a dangerous Fade,
and it endangers the future, too,
lowering expectations so completely
we'll be a bunch of idiots
before long

I mean, yeah, the Red Sox made that look good,
but if you face the truth you'll know
that you'll never be as good
as that miracle 2004 season

Which, more to the point,
is what's really wrong with the New Fade,
because we've destroyed the concept
of miracles

We buy them too cheaply

The New Fade 2

And what is the New Fade, then?
A riddle, dispatches from the past,
sent hurtling into the future,
with the present hardly to be accounted for.

The New Fade 1

I used to think
I understood
what modern times
were all about

I called them
the New Fade
because nothing seems to work
the way it used to,
any way that makes sense
really

But the New Fade
was supposed to be
about rapidity

Not some perverse
entrenchment

No,
not the one
everyone seems
fixated on

But a willful denial
that such a thing as history
still exists

That we actually can know
what happened in the past
and that we can still apply it
today

So maybe
just maybe
the New Fade
has now become
something else

A study of
the information age
in which we seem to know
nothing

How's that for a change?