Trimming the Crust

Waking in the sun-foxed
Hospital afternoon,
One more comatose nap,

You recalled visiting
Nonagenarians
On a bright day like this,

And how often grandma
Had told you she didn’t
Want to end up mindless,

Motionless, strapped to bed,
And yet, there she was, pinned
And vacant, and you thought

As you recollected,
(Since you could recollect,
Still, such a luxury),

Maybe you're plumb lucky
By a couple decades.

Evidence of Selective Imitation Based on Persuasion Outcome

By deploying examples,
By citing authority,
By building analogies,

By listing natural signs,
The would-be persuader yields
An epistemic frottage

Of what counts as good knowledge
In that persuader’s culture—
You won’t hear many numbers

Out of tribal war councils
Or auguries from NASA—
And what counts as good knowledge

In turn outlines convictions
About what leads to good outcomes—
Trust holy writ, double-blind

Trials, symbols in the stars,
Eyewitness testimony,
Replicated studies, Mao.

The old man smiled at a thought.
Whether any of these work
In a way superior

To any other depends
On what defines good outcomes
To those who lived those outcomes.