I can read all the words
and not detect their meanings,
sit and watch the systems fall
in their up and downswings,
fiddle with a plan and then
quickly work around it
much as many may suspect
and never find their culprit;
sooner should I understand
the effects of my labor
as entrails of a fallen dove
splayed by one skilled augur

in time, and in all due course,
with steadiness, and no remorse–
until bloodstained hands are clean
will I know what these words mean?