UBIK 

—for Philip K. Dick

1

Philip K. Dick didn’t—
Write science fiction
It wrote him

He kept falling—
Down this deep well
A bottomless pit

Dick had this—
Favorite storyline
“I’m just letting go”

He’d let the story—
Slowly write itself
Chapter by chapter

2

For example, his—
THE MAN IN THE HIGH
CASTLE winning him

The Hugo Award—
Early in his sci-fi
Writerly career

He’d toss the—
I CHING to guide
Him thru the story

He liked to be—
In a constant state
Of free-fall scripting

3

He’d be writing—
Along like some
Detective novelist

Waiting until—
The last chapter
Before figuring it out

Who’s the murderer—
How’s it going to end
And all that stuff

The why’s and—
Whodunits that make
A sci-fi story tick

4

P. K. Dick—
Collaborated with
The I CHING

Counting on it—
To show him
The way out

It worked okay—
Until his very
End as a writer

That’s when—
EXEGESIS became
A vast Black Hole

5

The fabrication—
Of retro worlds
Around the hero

Didn’t worry—
Dick while writing
All his stories

He let the Oracle—
Make all the
Decisions for his book

The setting—
The characters
The plot…

6

Like Abendsen—
He tossed the
Three Chinese coins

Coming up with—
The Hexagram 61
CHUNG FU

“Inner Truth”—
Wind blows over
The lake

The Visible—
Effects of the
Invisible

7

The horror of—
MAN IN THE HIGH
CASTLE though

Germany and—
Japan having actually
Won the war

Even after—
Dick had written
That Novel

He still just—
Couldn’t quite face
The awful fact

8

Trying to write—
A sequel to the
HIGH CASTLE

Leading him—
Down this deep
Endless hole

A rabbit hole—
Of hypothetical
Horror possibilities

EXEGESIS—
As Lovecraftian
Living nightmare

9

No kitschy—
UBIK ads to guide
Him anymore

Like the—
I CHING with his
HIGH CASTLE

He always wrote—
Last chapters of his books
In a state of panic

Not knowing—
How the real story was
Going to finally end

10

Like Joe Chip—
Ending up as a
Dead Half-Lifer

Stuck in some—
Cold cryogenic
Casket of death

P. K. Dick’s—
Surprise ending
Has Runciter

Holding a coin—
With Joe Chip on
Its profile side

11

Eventually—
Writing a Novel
Is a process

Like a program—
It has to shut down
Sooner or later

After awhile—
No I CHING-like
Aphorisms help

UBIK ads can’t—
Let P. K. Dick
Off the hook

12

The problem with—
Surprise endings
Is sometimes they

Can surprise—
The author with a
Surprise ending

Even Dick’s brief—
Short stories can
End up with awful

TOMB OF LIGEIA—
Horrible nightmare
Terrible endings

13

It’s like reading—
“Faith of Our Fathers”
a nice little mind-fuck

The magic antidote—
The anti-hallucinogen
The so-called “lucidogen”

Revealing so-called—
Reality as nothing but
A nightmare Simulacrum

Worse than any Orwell—
Or Hanna Arendt dystopia
Could ever imagine

14

Ever get the—
Feeling that Kipple is
Like really doing you in?

That entropy state—
Of decomposition and
Things falling apart?

Does it take—
A can of UBIK to get
You back on track?

Gluing the plot—
Back together again
For readers and writers?

15

Does it take—
Runciter’s paranormal
Counter Surveillance Inc

Telepaths, precogs—
Anti-telepath chicks
And anti-precog guyz

To get outta poor—
Joe Chip’s bad luck
Awful paranoia trip?

Joe Chip’s always—
Falling down into these
Evil parallel universes?

16

Dreary aversions—
Half-formed memoires
And schizo-dreams?

Joe Chip thinking—
That he’s inside some
Cryogenic dead dream?

Making his electro—
Encephalogram seem
Like it’s always going flat?

Take a quick whiff of—
UBIK right away and
Have a Nice Day!!!

17

Glen Runciter—
Turns up when
The phone rings

His handwriting—
Scrawled like graffiti
On the bathroom walls

There in the chic—
Beloved Brethren
Cryogenic Moratorium

“I’m the one—
that’s alive and
you’re all dead”

18

But that’s not—
How Dick’s UBIK 
Novel really ends

A coin in Runciter’s
Pocket turns out
To have the face

Of Joe Chip—
On it which means
That it’s a fake

Which means—
That Runciter is a
Living Dead Man too!!!

19

This is the kind—
Of shifting endings
Half-Lifers live

The hyped-up new—
Household product
UBIK is just a fake

Everybody’s like—
Already dead and
Cryogenically asleep

All of us are just—
Lucidly dreaming our
Android endless dreams

20

Re-reading P. K. Dick’s—
MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
UBIK AND EXEGESIS

It’s like waking up in a—
Dream thinking we’re awake
When we’re really not

We’re just having a dream—
Inside a dream, thinking
we’re all awake again

When actually we’re just—
Some cryogenic Half-Lifer’s
Doing our slow-mo routine