Sense

What does vision yield

But the shell,

But the shell?

What does vision yield

But the shell?

What does hearing glean

But the song

But the song?

What does hearing glean

But the song?

What does smelling sense

But the heat

And the ghost?

What does smelling sense

But the ghost?

What does tasting take

But the bitter

From the sweet?

What does tasting scatter

But the bitter?

What does touching softly

With the fingers and the lips

Gather but the bitter, and

Weave a counter-spell,

Reduce the song to braying,

All to reach inside the shell?

To spurn the other senses

All to break, to break the shell?

EJR