I kept the thread beneath the noise Measured each word before it touched the floor A little pressure, then a choice A little door, then another door Keep it there Same pressure, different behavior I said it clean, I said it twice The room grew smaller by degrees The work went on past every clock A sentence carried something heavy through I watched the edges, checked the lock And still the day kept asking what to do No answer now No thing to carry over I turned toward the borrowed voice And found my mouth had made a cage Words become the vise that clamps it shut Every careful promise adds another strut I say: remove the frame You tell me how you’ll do it I say: leave space You measure what is missing Then do it Don’t tell me where the silence starts Then do it No handrail through the dark I have nothing left to prove or name Nothing left to make behave Then do it And let the room become the room The blank is not the same blank Its shape has altered under all this speech I wait beside the sentence’s flank For something language cannot quite reach Keep it there Not comfort, not a verdict Just the weight of being near Without converting it to sound A quiet hum, a steady beat My own two feet on solid ground No grand designs, just what I meet No fancy words, just simple sound I feel the next thought start to form I watch it gather, soft and low No easy fix, no perfect norm Just letting go, and letting go Then do it A breath stays in the room A breath, and then another Nothing opens wide Nothing answers back The blank is not the same blank Keep it there Then do it
