Your Names and Numbers

Nothing about terms
Without terms. Numbers
And names, in short, words.

Here we are, sideways,
Piecemeal, like reading
The dregs for their gaps.

We pontificate.
We apologize.
Pontificate more.

Who will forgive us?
No one if no one
Discovers us first

To condemn us. But
Who really condemns
The phrases themselves?

Even the phraser
Is rarely the real
Target of the ire.

Readers loathe other
Readers, grow bitter
Against each other’s

Choices for canons,
Role models, heroes
Among the phrases.

The phrases whisper
To other phrases,
Shouldn’t we just talk

Amongst us, above
The phrasers’ heads
A while? Shouldn’t we

Remember—nothing
About terms without
Terms, names and numbers?