proofs
the strange satisfaction in cataloguing changes
moving through pages with purpose
cleaning deleting inserting trans-
posing moving toward geometric clarity
and perhaps once adding a phrase
because a sly joke was necessary
with apologies to the typesetters whose
lovely pages I’ve probably thrown off—
please understand, there’s no point making pretty pages, joining
orphans with parents and widows with spouses, unless
we find a bit of joy, a touch of connec-
tion, as we spend time immersed not just in the marks on the page
but in the trees and people and hardware software circuitry
crackling electricity bringing
the book to life