It’s a matter of control: the reader
The writer, and the text. All must submit
To the desires of the other’s meaning,
And the bonds of our understandings.
Such are the clichés of the written word.
One simply has to provide a few hooks
To tie the readers to a narrative,
And then drive them along beneath its whip.
In this poem, you are a trope to be used—
I lay you on the page aware I’m wrong
To take you in such a way, yet I do
Knowing only here do I have control.
We give ourselves up to the word’s power,
And willingly lock the chains at our feet.
(April 5, 2017)
