The Sentence

begins with its subject, 
          which is the sentence.

Track the sentence 
          to find out what happens

or how it will act. It is 
          the subject, after all. To track,

meaning keep an eye on
          which is synecdoche,

part representing the whole 
          of a thing. One

may track a package if he pleases. 
          One may track a person,

though you’d probably want 
          the whole of him, not only

an eye, or perhaps 
          only an eye. Look how

the sentence is so capable 
          of embracing contraction.

A him may function 
          as a subject, but that depends

upon the sentence, i.e., A man 
          is subject to his sentence.

You understand. 
          Such syntax renders it like

a package showing evidence 
          of having been tampered with—

 

Copyright © 2019 by Nathan McClain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 23, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.