Combinatorial poem: Parenthetical alternatives such as “wood / world” allow multiple verbal combinations. The poem therefore contains many possible poems inside one written structure.
Weather Report
At noon, the (sun / siren / silence) entered
through the (window / wound / weather).
I placed one (hand / hope / hour)
against (the glass, my heart/ the clock) and watched
a (bird / word / warning) cross
the (sky / screen / sentence).
By (dusk/ luck/ fate), the room had become
a (nest / test / memory)
for everything I had not (said / saved / seen).
The alternatives are contained within a single continuous poem. The reader may substitute one word for another, producing many possible versions, but the basic order of the lines does not change.
With eight sets of three choices, the poem permits (3^8), or 6,561, verbal combinations. Its defining feature is substitution, not navigation.

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