You Went By
This was written after I had taken care of my father in hospice during the pandemic. After he passed, I became privy to the archaeology of his life. I sifted through an entire basement of office paraphernalia, because, as an accountant, he had saved everything in triplicate.
i lay them out
organizing
by color
white on black
black on white
re-organizing
by shape
long short
thick thin
re-organizing
by time
fonts carbon-date
shifting shuffling
aligning this edge
now those
ascertaining
the numbers of names
you went by