502

These rules! All of these rules, unknown to me,

unwritten and unsaid in any law,

which make all things not nearly as I see,

and make all meetings as a monkey’s paw;

from what obeisant ledger do you work?

What rites and scriptures silhouette your road?

And why do you have neither priest nor clerk

to tell the likes of me your secret code?

For long have I been studying your way,

and many of your rituals I’ve learned,

but tell me—are there new rules every day?

Are your depths deeper, far, than I’ve discerned?

If so, I must abandon this attempt:

I will always, from humans, earn contempt.