Names / O(n) Time

 

I hold an attendance sheet in my hands

Weighted with names;

Surnames first,

Given names last.

I'm bringing these names;

Absences and presences to the office.

The absent are signified by the leaden scratch.

Absences are recorded and

Attendees are left in their state.

These are lists

With their marks of identity and genealogy on them.

Family and Self

Alpha and Omega

Beginning and End

History and Present

Home

They are like the striated, staggered boughs of a pine tree

A strain of DNA

Stratified as a community of identities

All the same age, but linked to seperate histories.

Each name, first and last

Is an algorithm of genealogy

They contain the purest etymology,

Linear time made manifest.

They provide the geometry of time.

Each name taps into a familial circuit

A tangible string

Reaching back into the dimension of time

It is where time and depth align

Father and Mother join

And produce a child and it is named

The Present and The Past

The child grows and marries

And produces a child

Names and DNA exchange and mingle

These names are the sum

Of many algorithms before them,

The impetus of those to follow

Reviews

[The White Wolf]

85 reads and not 1 review? Well, now you have one. I guess people don't like math or geneology. I, not because I felt the need to give you a review, wanted to tell you that your poem reminds me of 'ouroboros' and I like that.