Instructions are obsessions
with the way it is. Two short
words and a thousand ships,
launched at a point where only
the boat that has already arrived
may dock. War, in short, is a
logical extension of instruction.
When trying to do it
this way, the imperative
becomes a category error:
ways are mean when they
end. Action cannot get
traction unless it is willing
to do more than will. Yet
another didactic statement
defying the reliable fact
that thought is action
too. Also, please be this
way likens lichen to a
stone couch, a place to
sit forever rather than
arrive briefly, seasonally,
to be gently scoured off
by the dawning of a
different breeze. Yes,
the lines are meant to
teach. But they are not
meant to teach you,
reader. This poet,
referring to this self
at arm's length, reads
into the record a failure
to grasp the clasps that
hold back this poet from
finding the footnotes
that made this self
reference hook.
Roman Ryan 