Poet Amy Allara’s unwavering concern for bona fide curiosity over false clarity is her guiding principle in A Theory of Consequence. Excerpted from the longer “Unfamiliar Terms,” Allara weaves ancient ideas about body and brain, broken and whole, into an investigation of how we come to know what we know, using the works of Hippocrates and Galen among the elements used to craft this candid, lyrical and emotionally moving Theory. Collages by Courtney Gregg.