paperwork for strangers
is best left unfolded
since you don’t know how it’s filed
–whether in folios
upright like reeds
–or envelopes
dangling like wind-chimes
from clotheslines
whose to say,
the way
a stranger might file paperwork
or not file it,
they might just pile it, up! up!
until it shifts under its own importance
creating layers in eras
we might discover
after the roots have grown stiff
and words are sap and honey.
paperwork for strangers
is intimate that way
personal/impersonal
vital, lifelike, removed
written in secret–in a way–and not so
rushed. It takes time to say
exactly what you mean
to a stranger
out of context
without clarification
to say exactly what you mean
is best left unfolded
so as not to imply
or assume
or limit
the life of a document
which you have sent away.
–ECW
ECW Poetry 