“Small exact houses set back from small exact lawns.”

“Two yellow vapor lamps.” Mist. Rain. Mud. Main
street. Fogged glass. Wind. Wet gables. “Little rain-soaked

capes of lindens, birch groves, pin oaks.” Assume I was
once there (I do) studying the moss (okay?) between

rotten tree trunks; ant colonies; blackbirds; voles; beetles;
skunks; honeybees. The major (the history of it) was a minor

(the philosophy of it). The science of it assumes otherwise.
     •
Honesty itself

is an assumption—

of guilt, usually.
     •
So I assume—YOU, for

instance, studying
tree roots. It’s “easy”

to “allow for” such
“honesties”—bumps,

accidental imperfections.