Words can do wonders —
Ink in your hesitant insight,
Chart the peaks and boundary of your sprawling mood,
Assemble arc-lights
Around the moment when everything changed.

Words will help, but you cannot command them.
Show them a specification and they will smile, and turn away.


So be gentle; invite them to roam through your estate.
Do not cry out if, in the small hours, you hear them,
Padding along, in the secret places.
Wait patiently for their final recommendations.
(Yes, truly, definitely final, this time.)

Then learn at last how to sing your past to sleep
And celebrate the person you might yet be.