The Policy Says No
The policy says no to your case,
the policy was written for a different place
and a different time and a different man.
The policy was written by a different plan
for a different world and it doesn’t account
for the actual thing and the amount
of money or the thing you’ve actually got.
The policy says no because the policy’s not
built for your arrangement.
The policy says no and the estrangement
from the purpose the policy was built to serve
is complete, but the policy has the nerve
to keep running in the system as the word
of the institution, the policy is the word
of God in the institution’s cathedral,
and you are the petitioner and the people.
The policy says no, the policy says no,
the policy says no, there’s nowhere else to go
within the framework of the policy and its reach.
The policy says no and you can make your speech
about the extenuating circumstances here,
the policy says no doesn’t want to hear
about the extenuating, the policy applies.
The policy says no to every compromise
you’ve brought to the table in good faith today.
The policy says no and that ends the day.
The policy says no doesn’t care about your need,
the policy says no, the policy agreed
with itself before you walked in through the door.
The policy says no, what else is the policy for.
I spent two hours explaining the situation,
I spent two hours in the patient explanation
of exactly why my case was not the standard.
I spent two hours and the handling standard
was applied regardless and the outcome was
the same as if I’d said nothing, because
the policy has no ear for the individual.
The policy is designed to be prolific
in its application and consistent.
The policy is designed to be insistent
regardless of the individual case.
The policy is designed to hold its place
against the human tide of individual people
who each have a reasonable
argument for why their case is different,
why the policy should be different,
applied to them, and they’re all right,
and the policy doesn’t care and never might.
The policy is not malicious, it’s just
policy. It’s not malicious, it’s the crust
on the bread of the institution’s will.
Policy is not malicious but it will
do more damage to the individual
than malice could because the ritual
application of the policy has no check
on what it costs the person in the wreck
of their situation at the window.
The policy just runs, it doesn’t know
or care about the damage that it does.
The policy just is what the policy was.
The anger at the policy is not simple anger,
the anger at the policy is the stranger
kind of rage that has no face on it.
The anger at the policy has no place to sit
because the policy is not a person and it’s not
a decision being made, it’s just the slot
that your situation doesn’t fit.
The anger at the policy is the shit
that runs downhill through the whole institution
to the window where you’re waiting for solution,
and the window says the policy applies,
and the window is not lying, it’s not lies.
The policy applies, the anger has no door
to knock on, nowhere clean to settle anymore.
And this is the thing that the policy does
that no individual villain ever was
capable of doing to you quite as clean.
No individual villain has ever been
as efficient as the policy in its application.
No individual villain has the patience
of the policy, which will run unchanged
for years in every situation ranged
against the individual who stands at the window
asking for the thing the window’s meant to give though
the policy says no with the same face
every time, in every case.
The policy doesn’t tire and the policy
doesn’t feel the weight of what it costs me.
The policy is the most perfect weapon
of the institution because its lesson
is not that you are being denied by them,
it’s that you’re being denied by the system.
And the system has no face and it has no door,
and the policy says no forever and some more.
What I’m telling you is there’s nothing to fight,
nothing with a face you can stand in the light
and say your piece to, nothing that will turn
and look at you and understand the burn
of what the policy cost you in your case.
Nothing, just the smile and the place
in the queue and the form and the form after that.
That’s the policy and that is that.