And if the tribal dialect has yet to be
sufficiently restored,
and if the pique and pallor of the public
discourse yet continues
to obscure and to efface without the merest
whisper of chagrin, one
might nonetheless resolve to hold the line within,
whenever possible
among one’s also wincing cohort, honoring
the latent beauty of
the true, or, short of truth, what might for the moment
pass for it.