Search for the Roots of the Fog

It’s a phrase from a tale,
A good tale, a prose tale,
But it might as well be

That one line from the poem
That tells you, This is what
A poem should be—this is

What a poem does, if not
Bought for praise, built for love—
Go in search of its roots,

The way a mind goes off
In search of what will be
Next, the way a hound goes

Off on a scent—off and
Back, and then off, then back,
As fog slips from the trees.