Scott Simpson · Poetry

Assumptions Are Termites

Use For Kindling · source pages 21

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Source page 21

They gnaw quietly.

You don’t notice at first— the way you

filled in the story of the man

in the truck or the girl

with the tattoo, the way you

skipped the pause before

labeling the kid in the back row.

But wood weakens

from the inside. And one day,

what could have held a life

collapses beneath

its own certainty.

So, you tear out the rot.

You sit longer. You ask

real questions. You listen.

You learn what holds and what

never did.

Because love does that.