etymology

broken down
into component parts;
teasing out our history
from bits and pieces,
fits and starts.
seeing how this came to be:
a couple's etymology.

we roll the sounds around
our mouths
like marbles,
random vowels and consonants,
until they become merely
disassociated dissonance

or, like a child
dissecting an old clock,
we lay the bits of us
upon the table.
marvel at how
we're put together
and when we are all laid out,
springs and cogs
and promises,
when we are the parts
and not the whole;

that is when
we're asked the time

we scramble.
try to remember
what went where,
but despite our best efforts...
always tiny pieces left out,
ifs and ands and maybes,
our metal bent
ever so slightly
as we reassemble.

and though the hands
spin round the face,
our reconstruction
no longer keeps the pace.
time spins
in syncopated circles
until it stops
and we with it