I’m more than a little tired of the word elegy. One online thesaurus gives 183 synonyms for that word, most of them sad: requiem, dirge, lament, threnody, plaint, knell. Words that mourn. Words that weep over a much-loved corpse. I’m also a whole lot tired of hearing that word applied to the region that I call home.

Each instant, a shadow
of the one before. I
am the shadow of a shadow

becoming is easy enough for most of us to get at least part
of it right       loving is easy compared to being loved
     hating, too

& so how can the mind           /           so vast & intricate
one day forget where to bathe             /           or how to breathe

Made and unmade,
we make stories and call them memories
make memories and call them identity,
make identity and call it dream,