Contingencies.

Schweig, Sarah V.

    Someone in this city calls himself the Latin King.
   Kids who break the law are called Delinquents.
   The Law is a set of rules, always slightly changing.
   To Break is to inflict a kind of change on a thing.
   Across the city the Latin King is spraypainting
   his pseudonym. Juvenile Delinquents blot it out again.
   (Beautification.)
   This is a treatise on BLANK.
   Had the phrase OFFICES OF RAIN meant anything
   I would have thus begun this treatise:
   ALL LIGHTS ARE ON IN THE OFFICES OF RAIN.
   This would have perhaps suggested merely that it is raining.
   In this treatise, suggestion carries agency, and therefore
   it is now raining. I am walking through it.
   I would like to say AND THEN, but I am merely continuing
   what I've been doing. That the rain will end, I'm fairly
certain.
   Now the rain has ended. Juvenile Delinquents
   enlisted by the City to blank out the sign of the Latin King
   are dressed in white smocks. They are kids. Sometimes they are
   merely known as Black or Latino. Today, into white paint, they
   dip rollers. I am White and have just been walking through rain.
   This is a treatise on BLANK. I would like to include the Idea,
   sometimes known merely as Image, of replacing Chandeliers
   with Lampshades. Two friends recently made this decision.
   It could mean they resist the perceived opulence of their new house
   on Hall Street (Gentrification), or be preference merely
   and mean nothing. In any case, they turn light on and off by a
switch.
   This is a treatise on BLANK. By replacing OFFICES OF RAIN
   with TEMPLE OF STONE, I am breaking this treatise on BLANK.
   TEMPLE OF STONE means something, as I stood in it yesterday.
   In this treatise on BLANK, it is no longer raining.
   Juvenile Delinquents have finished repairing harm
   to the City caused by the Latin King, and have gone home.
   This city feels empty when it empties even slightly.
   This could mean I perceive Plenitude
   as a Precondition for the City I call Home.
   Yesterday, in the TEMPLE OF STONE, we were telling stories.
   This was the meaning of standing in that building, at that time.
   The stories were about a man. The Telling Of Stories
   occurred on the occasion of that man having entered suddenly
   BLANK. I would like to say AND THEN. (I can't.)
   What is the meaning of this treatise?
   Had I known, I would not have begun it. I am walking through it
   to understand. This was also the reason I entered the TEMPLE OF
       STONE.
   Matter becomes Boy becomes Man becomes BLANK.
   This is how I understand it. This City feels empty because it
empties.
   I would like to say Beauty where there is a BLANK. (I can't.)
   This is a treatise on Meaning, meaning this is the end of TREATISE.