THE SEMI-MEME'S LAMENT

the inner circle and the outer ... holding the true steady and looking for something new ... life begins within molecular change ... combination birth and decay ... and sometimes ... almost it seems ... that all this movement and becoming is all that counts and I'm what they call an epiphenomenon ... I'm real ... in a sense ... just as real as the molecules are and certainly as real as their movement ... but the point is epiphenomena have no effect ... and neither do I ... epiphenomena are beside the point ... the point being phenomena ... so we really don't count ... but we do cohere with other epiphenomena ... but none of us counts ... it's true ... but our coherence can be a thing of beauty nonetheless ... oh sometimes we get flashes of real correspondence ... cause and effect ... but they pass ... and it's all we can do to get someone who at least pretends to understand ... and that's real coherence ... this pretense ... they don't have to be there ... but our thoughts entwine ... they call them memes or the third world and say they have an effect ... I don't know ... I don't know ... but they do furnish a room