I want to tell you what for me it has been like.
To speak at all
I must occupy a position
Though the system provides positions
I do not clearly occupy.
Though some say such non-position is
My position—
Speak from that placeless place outside the system etc
Some would say and have said—
If the placeless place is created by terms
Of the system then it must be
Within the system even if it appears
Otherwise. And so
It may be that the position which is
Presumed to be of body
Might better be regarded as
A position of thought or
A receptivity to possible experience
As conceived by the still
Implausible eye
Of a man who defined
The flimsy self he carried
Against those whom he did not
Understand or know or in any real sense
See—
And if the possible vision
Of that implausible eye
Accounted for you
In name only
Then filed you under
Consequence—Side effect
It is not that the system fails
To position you
It positions you actively
And specifically nowhere
So that you appear on the outside
But remain within
Or you appear within
But remain on the outside
Which is to say in other words
A part and apart—
And so
If to speak in a particular social world I must
Occupy a position and that social world consists
Of positions that are clear but none
Of which clearly I occupy
Then it may be that I cannot even if I want to
Tell you what for me it has been like
And so