Slogan Age

The phrase stepped out before the speaker Caught the room and held it there Not the whole and not the ledger Just the part made fit for air What was argued in the margins Now could move in heat and time A thought reduced to public rhythm A doctrine learning how to chime You could feel it when it gathered When the mouths began to meet When the words stopped being argument And turned instead to beat The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd Rose up cleaner, louder, thinner Every time they said it loud The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd What began as sharpened meaning Now could move a room around Banners taught the eye their grammar Halls taught lungs what lines could do Every packet gained a posture Every chorus picked a truth Not yet storm and not yet theatre Still too early for disguise But the joy of public language Had begun to scale the skies You could hear it in the turning When a room became one sign When the long form stayed behind it And the heat stepped to the line The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd Rose up cleaner, louder, thinner Every time they said it loud The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd What began as sharpened meaning Now could move a room around Call and answer Cloth and weather Breath and ink and lifted hand Not yet empty Not yet rotten Still too full to understand But the shorter line moved faster And the faster line moved first Something in the public heartbeat Had discovered how to burst The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd And the crowd learned how a fragment Could make scattered voices proud The phrase learned the crowd The phrase learned the crowd What began as thought in transit Now could carry people out