You can be certain
of seven times seven
or memorize the square root of four
but you can never know
whether even one line
of yours will survive
its first night in the wild
let alone more.
This is just how it goes.
The serpent called The Long Run
will glide out between
your desktop and the sun
every morning;
you'll have to write in the shadow
of its fame, never asking why,
and die content
to be consumed in the
flame of not knowing
what it is you were setting
down all that time—never mind
how come or what for.