un-baffled exhaust ports
of an unseen muscle car breathe
noisy fire, roar, then idle down to a purr

abrupt report of a pistol

then shifting gears as the motor fades
into the distance, like self-conscious years
writing their way to a halt
at the index of a history text

all the unprovoked thoughts
run adrift, then assemble at sleep's door
as the novel loses its thread
just like a life lived in earnest

innocent as a forgotten thing
its power to provoke all played out
on a Saturday night in Houston

I pick up my keys
from the table and they slip
and I drop them

Reaching for the floor
where my keys lie
like a damp dollar bill

I hear
unrelated sounds

The blind embossed words
are all but hidden unless
the light is just right

Squinting in candlelight 
I angle the board edgewise
to the flame and see it

Worded like the stark declaration
of a law suit

The Hopelessness
of Things Ending
As Rooted in
The Heartlessness
of Things Beginning
      VS.
The Suchness
of Things et al

It is case law and
the basis of endless appeals
to the adjudication of
this issue, or that
ladled out of the cauldron 
of a steaming signal soup

The volume itself
is filled with children's
crayon scribbles
illustrating what no lawyer
could ever decipher
and is always left open
to biased interpretation

Addendum:

At some point, humans learned to make shoes.

Now we marvel at the pleasure
of going barefoot.

Image by Mari Kanezaki from Pixabay