Maria Damon
Alan Sondheim

A Word of Unknown Origin

Less auteur please
lizard-like conditions [attack by]
"lizard people"? [they deserve your vote]
lizards are endangered
and busy flashing the most
blues reds because "colorless" in the next
line leads to an exclusivity.
colorless lumen with puff-streaks for the
color-blind like myself, a true storey,
the fourth where I sometimes lived
while elsewhere now
averaging deaths
700 per day
orbs of red hauteur however
our Saviour's blood was red,
type O like the Story and not thereupon to be
desecrated, and did He not live
in the within the Red Confinations of
Providence, and not among the
(less please yes)
emollients of New York
don’t get any big ideas please
emolument phase please
Orm's Ormulum Alarum
where we have collapsed with Him as with a star that, it
seems, may release a six-pointed nuclear
explosion unfathomable,
generating
molecular gold and radioactive
elements, O Yes, Please, Yes, Please,
Yes, Minister, Yes, Prime! Minister,
yes pleas an innovative
branding technique
without rhythmic magic
a shimmering red like gilded blood
on the white lily pleasing only
Him, Trumpeting His Own
Replacement Apocalypse (H.O.R.A.)
A sacred union, pleated in dance.

"bold, hardy," from PIE root *kar- "hard." Beekes finds likely
from "mouse"), so called because the (Modern French lzard), from
Latin -art, from Old French -ard, -art, English, as in buzzard,
drunkard. French and English is probably German and Dutch used as
a Latin lacertum "upper arm, Latin musculus "a muscle," Old
French laisarde "lizard" Pre-Greek. Proto-Germanic *-hart/*-hard
The German element is from a word pattern similar to that of
added to it" [Johnson], late also arm-muscle or the lizard, is as
an mouse" (diminutive of mus bastard, Latin sense, the became a
living It is identical to bracchium), which suggests a 14c.,
element in common nouns, and thus from German -hard, -hart
"hardy," hardly in many personal names, often used influenced
Movement of the biceps intensifier work-it work-it, but in Middle High
is unclear Which element in lacertus (fem. lacerta) "lizard," likertizein
"to jump, dance," literally "little "an animal lusarde, from
Anglo-French lusard, muscular part of the arm, from the original.
De Vaan finds the passing into Middle English in pejorative by
words in -ard. of resembling a serpent, with legs shape and
coward, blaffard ("one shoulder to the elbow" (opposed to unknown
origin. The ending in were thought to resemble mice or mouses. It
which forming the second element who stammers"), etc. A back-
formation too abysmal to express ––It thus words
perhaps connected to Greek as it doth creep across the page
rightwardly descendant in secular scholastica

am I the only one recognizes that if you take (the word) "Latin"
and remove the L you get "atin" or "at in" as in I'm "at in Hell"?
or that if you take "animal" and reverse it, remove the L (AGAIN!!
- the "L"!!!) you get "anima"? What is "at in anima LL"? I am
positive the reference is to "atonement" in "Hells" (or the El, a
popular name for an elevated railway) (somewhat the same as we
fall towards a gushing end among the applecarts below). Hells,
Halls, Hills, Hulls, but the Holes and Wholes, one filling the other.
DO YOU SEE WHERE I AM GOING, DO YOU? It's like this:
Qanon = Kanon = Cannon; one queues for the El, does one knot?
Oh and by the way I'm the first to point out, I am sure that LIVE
is EVIL backwards, that DOG is GOD, that VILE and VEIL are
in there somewhere. Speaking of Diogenese lacertus, D. Lizard,
- note there is no relationship at all and THAT is the relationship.

NOW:

t if you tke (the word) "Ltin"

ke (the word) "Ltin"

tin"
m I the only know recognizes th
nd remove the L you get "t in"
t in" s in I'm "
s in I'm "t in Hell"?
nd remove the L you get "
t in Hell"?
tin" or "
t if you tke "l"
niml" or th l" nd reverse it, remove the L (AGAIN!!
t if you t
nd reverse it, remove the L (AGAIN!!
ke "
LL"? I m
t is "
m
t in

positive the reference is to "tonement" in "Hells" (or the El, positive
the reference is to "
tonement" in "Hells" (or the El,
tonement" in "Hells" (or the El,

.

t the sme ted r
me s we
ilw
s we
y) (somewh
mong the pplecll tow
pplecrts below). Hells,
rds
rts below). Hells,
gushing end
Hlls, Hills, Hulls, but the Holes H
lls, Hills, Hulls, but the Holes nd Wholes, one filling the other.
lls, Hills, Hulls, but the Holes
nd Wholes, one filling the other.
nd Wholes, one filling the other.

non = Knon = Cnon = C
non = Cnnon; one queues for the El, does one knot?
nnon; one queues for the El, does one knot?

nnon; one queues for the El, does one knot?
Q
y I'm the first to point out, I m sure tht LIVE

m sure tht LIVE
Oh
t LIVE
nd by the w
t VILE nd VEIL ckw
nd VEIL re
rds, th
re
t DOG is GOD, th
king of Diogenese lcertus, D. Lizcertus, D. Liz
certus, D. Lizrd,
rd,

rd,
in there somewhere. Spe
ll nd THAT is the rel- note there is no rel
nd THAT is the reltionship.
tionship
tionship.
t

===

A Secret THERE is THERE

Maria Damon teaches at Pratt Institute of Art. She has published several books of poetry scholarship, co-authored several books of poetry (with mIEKAL aND, Alan Sondheim and Adeena Karasick) and published two chapbooks of cross-stitch visual poems.

Alan Sondheim is a new media artist, musician, writer, and performerconcerned with issues of virtuality, and the stake that the real world has in the virtual. His writing is known for its "somatic grit" and skeletal codes that partially appear within and determine the surface; the textual body and body of text are deeply entangled. He has been producing his "Internet Text," a daily meditation on virtuality, for twenty-seven years.His work can be found at alansondheim.org and on YouTube