it didn't start as a counting
1 had no more purpose than 0
I felt whole before awareness
          consciousness is a rolling pen
          stumbling through ellipses...
now
       sentences serve as benchmarks

incidentally     I am building to something
incrementally     I am cramming margins with loose pennies
          indented     new paragraphs detract from my sum
          indentured     no change comes from this work

  t   h   e   s   e     w   o   r   d   s     s   p   r   e   a   d     h   o   l   l   o   w
consumed space                                                         an empty metric

as it stands     I am at 77 words
yet no further than when I started
       sometimes the goal is a ploy
I am hemming myself in with empty
periods are a euphemism.