Infinite Regress

Oh, where were we?
We were thinking about where we were
When we walked out past the who knows what
And then out of the jungle jumped a jangled ball
Of tangled and twisted hesitation
It was waiting for something to wait for
Hoping for a sudden burst of optimism
To drop from the dark rivulets of doom

Then there were the aftereffects
Of all that foreshadowing
Burning holes in the red carpets
Down the hallways of happenstance
And into the gloomy rooms of never can be
Back up the elevator shafts of impossibility
Do you remember?
Do you remember where we were
Halfway there, or a little less
In the infinite regress of the infinite regress

Oh where were we?
In a hall of a million mirrors
And all of these reflections of me
Carrying out eight billion careers
And many of them were sorry to see
This expanding mass of humanity
With their whys and their wherefores
And their why must this be?
And I looked to them for answers
And they looked back at me
And those eyes went on to infinity
Seeing more than any of us dare confess
Seeing past the however and the nevertheless
In the infinite regress of the infinite regress

Oh I forgot to remember
Or did I remember to forget
But it’s as clear as legalese
Or some obscure dialect of Cantonese
What I mean to say about the box
Inside the box
Inside the box
Inside the box
Ad infinitum
And so on
And so forth
The recapitulation of the retelling
Of a story that was never told in the first place
No, only the tale of it took off
Spreading like a brush-fire in the desert
A great legend of an epic
A quest for nothing in a world of far too much
Well, did we find it?
Nothing, that is.
Not at all.
Where did we find it?
Never be sure but here’s my best guess
In the infinite regress of the infinite regress

That which you’re used to
And that which seems new
Flirt through a curtain
Of never gonna happen
And almost didn’t make it
Slipping through the cracks
Of detours down garden paths
If it meant any more
It might be meaningless
Taking a break from eternity’s recess
Just to wrap my mind around my mind
Descending into the deepest end
And the deathless unending endlessness
Oh how did we ever get into this mess
Of the infinite regress of the infinite regress