The words house themselves within me,
I am not the words.

If they come
I remain whole. If they do not come
I remain
whole.

Diligence is set before me in the shape of
Whitman, hardcover—
in the shape of Collins, library copy—
Blake, Oliver, Ginsberg, Pound,
my own diary, my own words, my own breath
I drink the words that have come before me
and drink to the words coming, now
and do not worry about the words to come.

They’ll come.

And if they do not,
I remain whole.