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Abstract

rs, covid variants, cysts,</p><p id="9b01">a thousand defense mechanisms and a hundred neurotic responses</p><p id="6f72">to a million neurotic people and neurotic situations, chipping away</p><p id="2dc5">at our fragile egos and fledgling immune systems like some sadistic</p><p id="1d7e">Rodin making monsters from marble — ugly Balzacs and twisted dancers</p><p id="558e">frozen in defensive nonresilient responses that curb and choke</p><p id="4bb3">your breathing just looking at them — unnatural positions, painful predicaments.</p><p id="03e9"><i>resilience, what the hell is it?</i></p><p id="14cc"><i>whose</i> resilience? the grandmaster Freud</p><p id="9b71">himself died of jaw cancer probably analyzing one too many</p><p id="18e5">nuts and neurotics unless, of course,<i> dying </i>too</p><p id="7533">is a form a resilience — <i>can’t wing it on Earth?</i></p><p id="e4c5"><i>there is always Hades,</i> immortality by default,</p><p id="270d">not the kind of heaven you had in mind,</p><p id="029f">a sea of neurotics, dreamers, resilient in metamorphosis,</p><p id="2ec4">resilient like amoeba or plastic bobbing on oily shores</p><p id="bc8f">the psychological trash and residual riff raff</p><p id="7acc">of too many lives lived, dreams dreamt, masks worn</p><p id="6b8a"><i>resilience my ass</i> — maladaptive</p><p id="7140">misanthropes, all of us in one way or another</p><p id="d0db">both winners and losers animals of the same stripes</p><p id="47a1">awash in accident, caught up in gestures we never intended,</p><p id="146a"><i>babbling words we cannot believe are coming out of our mouths,</i></p><p id="4f54">ending in situations we meant to avoid in bodies that baffle us.</p><p id="17a1">resilience, <i>what is it?</i></p><figure id="e05e"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*

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mMaUCy8k32GsdBoWUQUPFg.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jerang?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Jeremy Lwanga</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mexico?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="b2d9"><b>© Carlo Zeno 2022</b></p><p id="e101">_____________________________</p><p id="f96f">Thank you for reading. Shout out to <a href="undefined">Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)</a> for provoking this piece of chaos with her clever <a href="https://readmedium.com/is-this-the-end-6536d4591307">prompt</a>. And thank you to <a href="undefined">Franco Amati</a> for continuing to provide this space for poetry.</p><div id="82af" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/december-december-cb5c5dbce701"> <div> <div> <h2>December, December</h2> <div><h3>Slowly unravelling down under</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*nuzAV3ZdADl9YImBntMuxA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="4fbe" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/is-this-the-end-6536d4591307"> <div> <div> <h2>Is This The End?</h2> <div><h3>a poem</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*H38itVeHznr9PhLe27of-w.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Double-Edged Resilience

Evolution’s residue

resilience, what is it?

sucker for punishment, or survival of the least fit?

healthy ambivalence, easy either way

can’t be fucking bothered another dollar, another day

was Christ practicing resilience up there on his martyr’s cross?

was Buddha being resilient immobile under his banyan tree?

how about the young waiter wiping the chairs a second time

swallowing her pride while an autocratic customer stands over her

telling her it’s still not good enough, like some nasty nineteenth century

Russian landowner from the pages of Chekhov come back from the dead —

is this resilience or silent rage? the fury of humiliation with the power

to break, crack, silence, suppress, slowly killing one from within;

or victims of violence stuck in unhappy marriages —

stoic, bitter, proud, accusatory—

don’t you dare judge me you fucking hypocrite —

resentful, crippled, like that twisted vine

producing such bittersweet blood red cabernet.

resilience sounds nice, but what is it?

diseases are resilient, too — cancers, covid variants, cysts,

a thousand defense mechanisms and a hundred neurotic responses

to a million neurotic people and neurotic situations, chipping away

at our fragile egos and fledgling immune systems like some sadistic

Rodin making monsters from marble — ugly Balzacs and twisted dancers

frozen in defensive nonresilient responses that curb and choke

your breathing just looking at them — unnatural positions, painful predicaments.

resilience, what the hell is it?

whose resilience? the grandmaster Freud

himself died of jaw cancer probably analyzing one too many

nuts and neurotics unless, of course, dying too

is a form a resilience — can’t wing it on Earth?

there is always Hades, immortality by default,

not the kind of heaven you had in mind,

a sea of neurotics, dreamers, resilient in metamorphosis,

resilient like amoeba or plastic bobbing on oily shores

the psychological trash and residual riff raff

of too many lives lived, dreams dreamt, masks worn

resilience my ass — maladaptive

misanthropes, all of us in one way or another

both winners and losers animals of the same stripes

awash in accident, caught up in gestures we never intended,

babbling words we cannot believe are coming out of our mouths,

ending in situations we meant to avoid in bodies that baffle us.

resilience, what is it?

_____________________________

Thank you for reading. Shout out to Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) for provoking this piece of chaos with her clever prompt. And thank you to Franco Amati for continuing to provide this space for poetry.