After Lucille Clifton, Take 2

the poem at the end of the world
is the one that dangles the truth
like a bacon-flavored treat above a dog
it is a poem that salivates our long
desire for clarity     for redemption     for
a reward     finally     for the things
we have done right     it is the language
of our undoing     the faint syllables
of our despair     and it is the hidden
music of our secret suffering while
we wait for what might never come
or     worse     has already been