---
title: Elegy for an alternate self
genre: verse

id: elegyforanalternateself
toc: "Elegy for an alternate self"

project:
    title: Autocento of the breakfast table
    class: autocento
...

| Say there are no words.  Say that we are conjoined
| from birth, or better still, say we are myself.
| ---But I still talk to myself, I [build my world][]
| through language, so if we say there are [no words][]
| this is not enough.  Say we are instead some animal,
| or better yet, [a plant][], or a flagellum motoring
| aimlessly around.  (Say that humans are the only things
| that reason.  Say that we're the [only things that worry][].)

| Say that I am separate.  To say there's everything else
| and then there's me is wrong.  Each thing is separate:
| [there is no whole in the world][].  Say this is both good
| and bad, or rather, say there is no good or bad but only
| being, [more and more of it always added][], none taken out
| though it can be forgotten.  Say that forgetting
| is a [function of our remembering][].  (Say that humans only
| [worry about separation][].  Say that only humans feel it.)

[no words]: hymnal.html
[a plant]: plant.html
[only things that worry]: movingsideways.html
[there is no whole in the world]: i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.html
[worry about separation]: swansong-alt.html
[build my world]: i-am.html
[more and more of it always added]: no-nothing.html
[function of our remembering]: collage-instrument.html