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Book 37 Page 48

I labeled it first

 

I thought,

I felt,

I wondered and, ‘I’ labeled this thing, “A.”

And from that day forth for many years to come, it was known through out the land as ‘A.’

 

The people became interested in me and I became famous. They praise me for my ingenuity, my honesty and above all, my genius and vision.

 

But after some time had passed, along came another man who thought he was smarter than ‘I,’ and he labeled my “A” thing, (‘B.’) Yes he stole my idea. The nerve of him, the Audacity!

 

Well I was furious, I was mad.

And I was secretly jealous and so I got my revenge.

I had read his book and it made no sense to me, none in the slightest.

“Why should it be called B,” I questioned, “my name was perfectly correct!?”

“Why did he have to change it to ‘B.’” It made no sense to me!

 

And so in a fit of rage I wrote another book, and I called it, “the ‘A’ explained some more.” I wanted to reclaim my ‘A’ for I believed it was rightfully mine. No one had the right to steel it, especially that arrogant man; whose brains I declared publicly to be “akin to a baboon.”

 

When the book reached the market place it was received with great raptures and ‘I,’ made a lot of money again in the process.

 

But alas, in time, someone else, someone else who thought themselves smarter than I, refuted my findings in a book entitled, “It is not ‘A,’ nor ‘B,’ it is ‘C.”

 

By this time I could not reply with the gusto that others were so accustom, for I had become old and tired and my bones creaked in the morning telling me to “slow down” from my normally enthusiastic pace. Alas; I did not have the strength or even the energy to set the record straight and to embark upon yet, another book. For by this time I had had four children of my own and ten grandchildren and alas, I had no time, nor the energy to engage in such ‘intellectual’ folly. So I decided to leave my creations as it stood, to leave it unchallenged for others to judge. After all, my original words were clear, the meanings were quite correct. It was ‘A,’ and no one was going to take that away from me. I alone had discovered ‘A,’ / I still to this day declare, no one had thought of ‘A’ before I! came along. History will judge me to be correct.

 

And so I suppose, when another generation comes along, they too may again come back to my ‘A.’ They will no doubt question my reasoning and come to see and understand what I meant by ‘A.’ And hopefully! if all goes well, I shall be hailed as a man before my time. Though by then, I may lie peacefully in my grave.

 

And I still hope and believe that someday, - in the distant future, - my genius may be finally understood and ‘they’ in the future will say of me, “he was a man of great foresight, / a genius before his time.” But alas if all does not go well, I shall go down in history as yet, just another simple minded and mistaken man.

 

And in a way I’m glad I won’t be here to see what happens. I have had my say, and I stand by my words and I will die by my words. My ‘A’ is the correct word to describe it, and that that ‘A,’ is a constant founding law of the universe.

 

© Written by Dominic John Gill www.poetry.net.au  dominicj7@poetry.net.au  23 June 2003