reductions I

a paper with printing
proclaims a union:
a marriage of two
people, a 
splicing of purpose -

it ratifies trust 
in hope and plans
in growth and mutual
harmony, in a life of love 

the promise broken
the vow unfulfilled; all is
discarded:
a shrugging-off process
proceeds easy and
inexorable as
the progress of days -

	he sheds a wife
	he takes-off a life
	like an overcoat

the printing on the paper
says
severance is absolute -
ignores
the mute heart, the slow
mind's beat, the skin's
paring

life is too short for such
administration, such
needless ugliness and
dissonance - these make
love an illusion, a mirage

papers mean
merely death for trees
and work for printers
and clerks

words are merely
meaningless jargonese
reduced to 
announcing living lies

a sign-system, intelligent
and cold, letters are
representative of emptiness -
the sheer mundanity
of human pain

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