Shift

For years
You can look at a poem
And everything appears fine

And then one day
You find a word
That no longer belongs -
Perhaps never belonged,
Or a space
Where a word
Should have been
But wasn't put in
for whatever reason

So you remove a word
Or insert a word,
Depending on the case,
And everything
Seemingly
Falls back into place

And then you wonder
What impact
If any
That small alteration
Had on the universe,
On the meaning
Of things

Perhaps nothing
Perhaps everything