and i like to start poems with and

so they know something comes before,

came before;

that my words,

swimming with precedent,

are coupled with an untold history.

and it is here we meet,

finding the present in these syllables these vowels these consonants,

trembling thoughts strung together to convey a truth unbeknownst to me until i’ve finished writing.

and they will find their own truths between these storied lines.