y'know who's suspicious, norm?
people with convictions.
i don't mean convicts, who
are already adjudicated beyond suspicion,
somewhere in the pen or paroled.
no, i mean people with convictions,
people who believe something
in their core that cannot be
articulate, and nevertheless
insist on it, through a life
of symbolic gestures and/or
linguistic approximations.
people with convictions are beyond reason.
that, in itself, is reason for suspicion.
those pocket-knife haircut postering punks,
the world socialist vegan ecoterrorist front,
evangelists of despised religious doctrines,
foreigners, organic farmers, labor unions,
animal liberators, peace activists,
antiwar demonstrators, intellectuals and
freedom fighters, obviously.
but also evangelists of accepted sects,
notions of intelligence, actors, investors,
owners of the mainstream as much
as the alternative press, purveyors
of smut and success, glut and excess,
educators, commentators on news,
advertising revenues, myself, norm, and you.
people who know where they stand,
who know what they know
are suspicious for their certainty;
any idea would be suspicious too.
y'know what else is suspicious?
doubt.