from Kushim
ix. Kushim Perhaps the First Recorded Human Name
Experts agreed the word the word was Kushim meant
One thing or something else…..it was some thought the name
Of who had written down the records barley…..went
Out mostly mostly…..to officials but the same
Records perhaps meant sometimes barley coming in
Barley for where…..the institution Kushim came
Mornings to work at or came afternoons or when-
ever he came and on whichever days or it’s
It might have meant the place Kushim…..it might have been
The title of his job…..in the records Kushim sits
Beside the entries part of them and separate small
Bud on a branch…..but maybe Kushim thus commits
Himself to the correctness of the numbers all
The world bears witness he bears witness his the first
Recorded name his name…..but if I were to call
Forth Kushim’s or the not-…..named’s bones bones blessed or cursed
Or unremarked disposed he if…..I were to ask
Might say it was…..just where he worked…..mouth dry his thirst
Unbearable might coughing say…..he was a mask
Kushim wore briefly…..every instance of the word
Inscribed by someone different…..they who did the task
Might stand before me wondering…..had I not heard
Kushim pronounced the wind in it the flecks of dust
From the grains caught in it in it…..the song of the bird
Singing as one walked tired from Kushim home I must
Have heard their lives they…..who did Kushim in the bare
Sounds following the jeweled sound…..in the m the crust
Of something good forgotten…..eaten with a prayer
At night when Kushim disappeared…..its radiant
Spire that touched heaven…..gone like it was never there