How to begin?

Look at the ground, or something.
Find a bit of truth sticking out,
or notice something pretty.

(In fact,
let’s just start over and say
you should find “something”
and not worry too much about
pretty or true.  Just start
somewhere, with something.)

So…there, in the ground…something
pretty or true.  
Or both.  

Grab your shovel of choice,
and dig.  Dig it up and out.
Decide: more pretty, or more true? 

There are, allegedly, 
rules for measuring this difference.
Ignore them a while longer
and dig more — seek nuggets
to supplement the lacking side —
find unrelated somethings
to be used for alloy.

When you’re done, 
you should be standing
on a tiny peak
of undug ground,
standing next to
a pile of something
in the middle of an excavated pit. 

Throw yourself
off the peak into the pit,
end up face first
at the bottom of the pile.

Roll the wreck
of your body over
and look up.  That’s where
you came from.
You’re not there anymore
and the only way up
is to make a ladder out of all the 
pretty ugly false truth
you’ve accumulated.

Yes, this is how
we all began.