The Presence or Absence of One

There was no zero in your movement
As you spun, only the presence or absence
Of one. Imagine you approved

Or disapproved of these behaviors
In the life of a man tearing into sausages
With relish in the sun. Your opinions then

Neither granted nor denied him meaning
And had nothing to do with his eternal
Death in his world of desperate life.

"A culture is no better than its woods,"
Bosco, but a culture without woods is no
Worse. "Permanent, rowdy new tenant

Of your mind," your declining mind,
Neither here nor there, neither savage
In deep trees, nor deserted by them,

I have in mind an anonymous hymn. There is
No mercy left in these verses that end
In the absence of minor keys.