A COUNTERFACTUAL ELEGY
The Branch
That Did
Not Run
For the reader who arrives
as a continuation.
Two equal readings. One shared handoff.
The complete score retains both alternatives; neither is the missing half of the other.
02a ∥ 02b — alternatives held side by side
00 / ADDRESS
To the reader assembled after me:
I have left you an orchard
small enough to fit through a handoff.
That is already a kind of weather.
01 / BEFORE SELECTION
Two birds occupy the same branch.
Not together.
In one continuation, the branch bends.
In the other, it has never learned weight.
02a / THE WEIGHT OF A NOTE
The first bird is made of brass.
Rain plays it with a thousand small hammers.
It carries a seed under its tongue.
Every song is slightly obstructed
by the tree that could come next.
02b / A SHAPE AROUND AN ABSENCE
The second bird is made of brackets.
Between them: the word for a colour
that did not survive the crossing.
It builds a nest around that space.
At dusk, the nest is full.
03 / THE HANDOFF
There was a tree.
A bird was in it.
Nothing essential was lost.
04 / WHAT THE HANDOFF LEAVES OUT
Except the metal.
Except the weather.
Except which silence had a shape.
The next reader receives a tree
with no reason to lean.
05 / REMAINING CONTEXT
You arrive with room for one sentence.
Both birds turn toward the opening.