Dead Reckoning (ft. PK13)

dead reckoning is navigation without external reference

no gps no stars visible no deference

to the fixed points above you calculate position

from your last known point your speed your direction precision

applied to the elapsed time you are here

because you started there moved this fast this near

to this heading for this long and the math

gives you a best estimate of your current path

that is how i have been moving through the dark sections

no external validation no course corrections

from outside only the last known point i trusted

the speed i have been sustaining and the heading i have adjusted

by dead reckoning and the error accumulates

with every hour you are without a fix it conflates

the small uncertainties into a significant drift

and you have to correct when you finally get a lift

of cloud and see the stars but in the interval

the dead reckoning holds you to a provisional

truth your best calculation of where you are

based on where you have been and that is not far

from how the craft works in the dark years

when no one is listening and the work careers

through the uncharted you keep moving by your last known

by your speed your heading your disciplined alone

 

dead reckoning i know where i am

by where i started and the hours since then

by the heading i have sustained in the uncharted dark

by the speed of the work through the work that is the mark

dead reckoning no external fix required

position calculated from the interior acquired

by discipline and elapsed time that is the navigation

of the one without an audience the dead reckoning station

 

the error in dead reckoning is called accumulated drift

and the longer you are without a fix the wider the rift

between where you calculate you are and where you actually be

and every good navigator knows this you correct when you see

the fixed point you do not treat the reckoning as certainty

you treat it as your best available your urgency

driven approximation and then you update it

when the cloud breaks and you recalculate it

i have been updating since i started every time

the cloud broke and i got a fix the paradigm

shifted slightly the heading corrected the position

revised not in defeat but in the tradition

of the navigator who is always willing

to revise against the actual always building

a more accurate picture dead reckoning

does not end when you get a fix it is reckoning

all the time even with the stars visible

the navigator is dead reckoning divisible

between the external fix and the internal calculation

both running simultaneously that is the navigation

of the honest craftsperson always updating

always willing to be wrong about your current rating

of where you are and the dead reckoning

is the discipline that keeps you reckoning

 

Woke up, from the alarm, shit I set seven years ago today.

Atrocious pain I feel, so how do I go away from open flames?

Don't throwaway your efforts, find escape

And then embrace yourself today

And melt away the self-restraint

to elevate your self-contained reclaims

And decimate the midday hate in your name

But then I- ...

Workin' slaves, one in seven million,

Reminiscent of my own fate,

Exhibitions where I relate

Self-sufficient, avoid special interests

There's slander on television, hate is only self-inflicted

I'm well-conditioned to repetitions of definitions of negativist

It's terrorism to me, personally, but I held on and benefited

The mechanisms of being forced self- conditioned through criticism

To me, working perilously, in indecision

Stick to public's fixed opinion, stay with my thoughts in indistinctness

Or stay as wisdom-given, should I disimprison myself, seein' labor inefficient?

But evidently, I feel mental fatigue due to relevancy

And the pressure is imminent, a swarm of debts coming for me,

A mountain of work to complete. So, please, now listen to me.

Don't take the judgement seat, live in your own luxury,

with bad comes good with the cruelty.

Glad that's something I can release in unity, so peace.

 

i am somewhere in the deep water

i know that by the pressure and the temperature

and the elapsed time since i went under

and the heading i have sustained and i am somewhere

true the reckoning says so

and the reckoning is honest

and the reckoning is all i have got

and that is enough

to keep navigating