encyclopedia

----------------------

In less than a week
I estimate that I have
compiled a volume
that would have
left the encyclopedist
trembling.
I recognize
Diderot’s handwriting
on the wall
of the decrepit stall
in the three star
restaurant that the Michelin
Guide ranked so highly.
I understand
all that he had
meant to say,
no matter how oblique
most thought it to be.
His thought scrawled
is simplicity’s
most beautiful
incarnation.
There is nothing
to be gained
in all of the volumes
that have come before,
and in all of the volumes
that are yet to come.