Who can claim
a word that contains
the fathomless waters
and tireless rains
Or put a name
to unappeasable tides
Or bind a monsoon
with blunt mortal pride

Who can claim
a handhold on age
Trap time within margins
of flimsy white page
Or sandwich the heavens
between cardboard covers
Exalt one explanation
Refuting all others

Who can claim
expertise on the heart
by the ragged repetition
of a medical chart
Or explicate love
as a chemical reaction
biologically programmed
as an aid to attraction

Who can claim
the right to define
pure from profane
devil from divine
Or profess pious pity
for those who lose course
Forgetting their blood
flows from the same source

Who can claim
an infallible truth
that excuses all ignorance
and exempts them from proof
Or cling to the comfort
of shining delusions
Ignore every threat
to convenient conclusions

Amid pixie-led perception
and mystifying morals,
chaotic conceptions
and querulous quarrels
Amid endless exceptions
to relative rules,
those without questions
are the truest of fools.