although daily
we saunter together
down these shabby cotton-
brown sidewalks, past
the most
woebegone of stroller-
bound children,
I still can't
help but laugh a bit,
since you never quite
seem to realize
it's you—who invariably
precipitates, in each one of
these little novices,
the earth-shattering realization
of that certain
prelapsarian premise—
that man,
with the sheer pacifying
power of words
alone, can
control his
whole universe.
