The Measure of All Things

I begin by drawing a line with a ruler;
An outline of a timeline of a line of rulers;
Rulers that one of wisdom would never cross
(especially not those rulers under the cross).
I seek to serve man, but those rulers seek to serve man to other men.
I can’t tell you what that means because I don’t know what it means.
The one thing I know is that I know no thing,
but I believe that man should be more than a means.
Man should be an end in and of himself
but man is going to be the end of himself
if he doesn’t change himself —
This seems to be an ending in itself.

I began by drawing a line with a ruler
but I am not even the ruler of my own beginning.
In the beginning was a word: I
But before “I” was a beginning.
By some unwritten rule, all rulers were ruled by the rulers before them.
I don’t know if there was ever a first ruler
from which all rulers were measured;
But if man is the measure, the measured, and the measurer
then why believe in a first ruler aside from I?
I began by drawing a line with a ruler
and when I stop drawing, the line ends.

(Published in Naugatuck Valley Community College’s literary magazine “Fresh Ink 2014″)