Nodding Along

You talked about the way the atoms move,

how grief is just a law of heat and light.

I nodded in that comfortable groove

and told you that I thought that you were right.

But looking at this manual on the floor,

this blurred diagram of valves and steel,

I realize I don’t know what anything is for

or how a person is supposed to feel.

The engine parts are labeled in a code

that I will never truly learn to read.

I’m just a traveler on a long and empty road

pretending I have everything I need.