A Recipe Box

This papyrus is thickened by the roots

of cedars and Lebanese cyprus trees,

granted they travel underground and

papyrus walks in the hands of messengers

but when treating both in this concotion

we must note the irrevoable sameness

of the two: columns and lines like azaleas that

could have blossomed at night,

arctic whispers of solidity, how

smooth they both are upward into the sun--

to make the concoction harden, then,

pull these two elements together with a soluble chemical

and whisper three times like southerly winds.