Syntax

There is a common syntax

to each

new-day-sentence and it

starts

where you’d think (it’s

simple) it starts

with a they or a you or

in rare instances of valor

an “I”

capitalized if necessary by

the

drip

drip

drip of the coffeemaker

hot bitter ellipses

and subject bleeds into mid-morning

verb

(to have, to do, to feel)

(to be)

with perhaps

a reluctant “ly” to soften

(parenthesis- don’t modify “to be” today, please)

each

,midday,

breathe, sleep, don’t think in present progressive or

in future tense

(don’t think in-tense at all)

how many words

do you

need

to fill six pages, single-spaced;

standard margins acceptably fudged-

too many clauses

piling

up

(run on or up or away but don’t leave- you’re still a fragment)

final modifiers

in bed after the light flicks off

eyes wide and sideways and

somewhere

feel some familiar object in the dark

a point

period

drifting off

but maybe this night

won’t

end