Apocrypha
by feldman
She deciphers the sentences like taking apart a steering fin, tracing how the action words pull the object words, how this dynamic is fine-tuned by the adjuster words.
She spends arns each night recalling every lesson until the memories are instinctive and the shape of his thoughts are inscribed on her pounding skull, until the words come fast enough for her to track the trajectory of the thoughts that pilot them.
Her lips move in cadence, her fingers caress the grooves on the page.
She studies, and tests her knowledge
of a dead language against the living man. Keeps failing.