Practicing His Craft

An herbaceous arbor flanks the harbor where he labors fitting words to spaces -- blanks he fills, erases. He savors bits of meaning, sculpting sound to logic's shape, annealing word and image, polishing a verbal mound congealing on his pad. A bird chirps. Song distracts. A moment's lapse. He compares the bird's with his own work, considers form and content, sees the gaps, tosses his dead page into the water's murk.