Philology
Published in the anthology Poetry as a Foreign Language and in the collection Consumed.
These words are not my own. They flow unguided
Through lips and ears. They've mixed and interbred.
They've bombed around, and bruised where they've collided,
And changed their meaning each time they've been said.
Don't talk of their descent or evolution.
Don't group them into groups. Draw me no tree.
Don't tell me to protect them from pollution.
They're global. And they don't belong to me.
They rocket out the second that I breathe them.
They cloud the air and fumigate the phone.
I nourish and inherit and bequeath them.
They pass me by. These words are not my own.
