For Now Swallowed Whole
They stood up and raised their hands.
Not to speak ... Not to testify ... To answer a question that only required the body ... Had the Department of Justice responded to your requests ... Raise your hand if the answer is no ...
All of them raised their hands.
The same gesture a child makes in a classroom when they need something ... The same gesture a person makes at a border when they have nothing left to hide ... We have all raised a hand before ... We know what it costs to lift it when the room is not sure it wants to see it go up ...
The hands went up and the room had to look at what had been sitting behind the attorney general for five hours ... The bodies the files were about ... Standing ... Finally asked ... Answering with the only word the body can make without opening the mouth ...
And the room kept going.
The hands went up and the five hours absorbed them the way a lake absorbs a stone ... A splash ... Then the surface reassembles ...
We do this ... We watch the hand go up and we let the lake take it ... We feel it for the length of the seeing and then the hearing continues and the barbs continue and the surface is smooth again and we forget that the stone is still at the bottom ...
Goldman pointed to a document ... One name blacked out among a list of names left visible ... Clearly intentional ... Clearly designed to say we know who you are and we can show everyone else ... The redaction that protected one name by exposing every name around it ... A fence with one board missing on purpose so you know someone can see in ...
Knott offered a defense ... Not enough time ... Not enough resources ... That is a defense that works only if you do not look at the hands ... No resource problem explains not answering the phone ...
The hands are still up.
Not literally ... The hearing ended ... The hands came down ... The bodies sat back into their chairs and then eventually left the room through whatever door was available to them ... Not the staff exit ... That one was taken ...
But the hands are still up the way a question is still up when nobody answered it ... We saw them ... We are still seeing them ... The surface reassembled but we know ... The stone is still at the bottom ... The room is empty now and the lights are still on and the hands are part of what the room is showing to no one ...
DISCUSTING
February 12, 2026
Unfolding
Methodology: Wonderful Garbage
Style: Noir Song
Oyparaploo
