Doubt is not a pleasant condition,
but certainty is absurd.

Voltaire

XXX

Tuco was reading one evening
when he came across a serious-funny line.
"The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway
is usually a poor judge of distance."¹
Ah, yes, certainty imbedded in the offer.
And doubt imbedded in the hearing.
Tuco listened to the wind.

He remembered another line,
"Silence is a text easy to misread."²
Arlu had used it once
some time back.

As she, once again,
planned a departure,
duration unknown.

Distance, Tuco thought.
No doubts,
just
wide margins
and quiet clocks.

Nothing certain.