But It’s Something to Think About

Something in a recent book
Circles around and around.
It’s an assertion, of course.

For all the love of language,
Imagery, character,
And plot, what often lingers

Of a a prized and quoted text
Is some assertoric force.
This book asked rhetorically

Whether all stories were not,
At heart, about their tellers.
Are they now? Less so than clothes

Are at heart about bodies
They were made for, who wore them.
But they do tell us something,

Always, about the tellers,
And yet, less than they tell us
About their audiences,

Especially if they last
To become canon themselves
Or part of a tradition.

Selections are more about
Selectors and selecting
Than about authors, starting

With natural selection.
Ultimately, it could be
Stories are about stories.