suppose a game

Suppose language is a game
**whose rules are dreamed
****by an agreement of players

Once broken, the speakers are tossed
**& know no rude tongue but their own
****no (fixed) meaning in solipsism

But always in a process of being stranded
**are spectators of solipsism
****stuck within themselves, empirical data

Theirs is private demon language
**obstruction, ownership, demand
****Is the door open?

Rain here yet?
**Have their ideas entered all heads?
****Is this the end of the game?

They quickly become the ex-modern
**and you, poet, enter the arena
****an animating principle to a touch of words

Seduce them to your page
**caress plosiveness
****beat them to a fine shapelessness

Or sentences are for the first time stark & clear
**not untrue to what flaunts style:
****webs of cloth, a mirror you hold

The players conjure nihilism, their only way
**to be curious, vain, a waste of strength
****as confusion weakens the vocal art

Cybernetics is the exchange of their news for yours
**Yours is: However abundant the nectar,
****the bees stop dancing as the sugar drops

They tell you nothing, their lips are sealed, you keep dancing
**Was the agreement that words shine like sun,
****or glint as weapons in moonlight?

--Anne Waldman