I returned to my hometown convinced
it was all a simulation; all of it
Stumbling onto the word of God like that,
those incontrovertible laws of physics
Well it was clear as day, even to a fledgling programmer like me
Code: code from the top down
and again code beneath it all, lurking
Every invisible pit in the night sky, every degenerative telomere in our baked clay
All of it preordained and pre-set
in the Preserved Tablets above: code is code

Soon after my return I met with a distant relative of mine
who I hadnt seen in years, not since I had left for the city
She was something akin to a cousin
Dearer to me in fact than actual blood
Well she sat across from me a priestess of sorts now, with bleeding pits for eyes
Both of them gouged out by her own hands in sacrifice for true vision
I couldnt conceive of such a senseless belief or conviction

Well she claimed she was a channel to the beyond now and nothing more
That she had gouged out more than just her eyes: that she’d also gouged out her mind
She was my cousin and kin no more
and instead a passing face to be worn by things unknown, and furthermore, unknowable

Who would consent to such a thing?
To be reduced knowingly to an antenna
No; to a glove, moved around and puppeteered at the fancies of the betentacled
Were they terrifying angels or demons that possessed her? Did it matter an iota?

I cannot believe divine providence
would allow my dearest cousin to expunge her soul so wholly, yet what is Written for you will reach you as surely as code is code