Steps to Evanescence
Follow the Leader
STEP 1
If I assume the position
Disguising conscription
And brighten my appearance
T'ward blinding ambition
STEP 2
They'll never see what they don't want to see
Coming to them instead of from me
They'll see reason in assuming such coherence
Is destiny teasing a fools' Pyrrhic victory
STEP 3
Diffraction is deceptive
For the blindly receptive
And in their way, things' final clearance
Falls wayside, irrespective
STEP 4
They won't know what they misunderstand
They won't be shamed by the Motherland
They won't reconsider their dogged adherence
When they follow True South fogged by command
STEP 5
Lemmings dance my cadence of drumming
And follow the footfalls in precipitous numbing
They won't detect the refractive interference
Of the coup de grâce they'll never see coming
STEP 6
Once they goose-step in lockstep overstep
Towing my line's clean slate, overswept
The toxic evanescence is hypoxic disappearance
Till they fade, not knowing, how they so overslept
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. Hippocampus, behave!
Make me rich! https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
My substrack at https://substack.com/@drdileo
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Comments (3)
Great entry, Gerard. I've always had a fascination with lemmings and lemming-like behavior
More like the world tilting, leading to a disappearing
A chillingly elegant descent, both rhythmic and rhetorical. Each "step" draws us deeper into a fog of manipulation—where power masquerades as purpose, and obedience dissolves into oblivion. The cadence mirrors the trance of control, while the diction shimmers with menace. “Refractive interference” and “evanescent trappings” are especially haunting in how they capture illusion as strategy. This piece doesn’t just describe the fall—it choreographs it.