All philosophies condense to a line, with time,
and all songs dwindle to a single sooty melody,
and even if you sawed the locks off your senses,
even if you turned these letters
until light came through,
so that what’s behind them
could demand to be rescued,
even if you left behind the sentence,
tossed the whole scaffolding aside,
and let each moment become its own manifesto,
you would still fall back
to foil scraps and pigeon shit,
upturned take-out and puked noodles,
smashed flasks’ stained glass,
and sweatered smokers kicking
at the torn grey tissues
of dawn clouds.