In the beginning was the image.

The word followed some time later,

and the word was not God,

and the word was not with God.

The word was man's,

and he put his stamp on everything.

Names can be a kind of refinement,

but now we are possessed by names

and nobody can find reality.

Things and creatures are

saddled with names, but they

are not the names themselves.

It helps to know this.

It hurts to know this.

Our genocide is in our names,

it rides on our interpretation.

Words do not define, they can only

at best caress meaning.