Tie

Is it the story or
Its contents that create

The dilemma? Settlers
And spores can be heroes

Of their own success or
Villains of lives taken.

The chestnut forests are
Mourned in America,

Land of many settlers
And source of many spores.

Can stories not help it
That a protagonist

Must perform the monstrous
Villainies of other

Stories of the same kind?
Is it in the nature

Of success to slaughter
The success of others,

Feature not a bug of
Heroes to be monsters?

Or is it the stories,
The nature of stories,

Not of their characters,
Pretended divisions,

The rising and falling
Actions, clipped conclusions?

Stories don’t just begin
In the middle of things,

Sometimes. All stories end
In the middle of things.

There are no monster spores
Or settler heroes here

In eternal middles.
Snip threads, make opposites

That look like ends, that could,
And will, tie up again.