Raise the flowering branch
Bending it upward
The dogwood strong despite its delicate seeming

But with sufficient downward pressure
The branch will split off at the forking
The way the physical world operates

But in the perceptual world
No precise measurement
For calibrating destructive force

And perception reacts
It does not calibrate
It reverberates in endocrine speech
Far outside the cognitive matrix

Silent commands
To delight to dread
To suffer to triumph to arise in pursuit
To collapse in downcast disappointment