We Don’t Bring Anything Else

The effect we have on you
Is direct, while the effect

We have on the world in which
You swim, stripped of you, barely

Counts as indirect. And yet,
You chant and chant and chant us,

As if the incantations,
Repeated invocations

Of names you’ve made for the world,
These words to which we’re attached,

Your notions, your germs, your ghosts,
Could of ourselves conjure power.

You believe us when you pray.
We believe we conjure you.