what to put in, what to leave out

        What are

theories if not a means of testing 

our belief about the world. And if belief, 

like the body, is an animal, then flesh 

is the measure of all things. I say 

 

this line is evidence of love
in its purest form: the heart teaching the hand 

what to put in, what to leave out; I say

someone witnessed, and understood, the third 

animal these lions dragged into the world
 

in the wake of their affection. Because these lions 

have been abstracted into life by the prayer 

of attention. Their bodies are touching as they walk. 

[Jude Nutter, from 'The Lions of Chauvet' in Dead Reckoning]