by Amy Letter
paths forking project ongoing media mixed structure branching often recursive boundaries untimed limits unspaced rules optional rules followed Only 3
04. Archive for paralinear Access
05. Random to jump from branch to branch
The question hasn’t baffled me
since the 7th grade, when Ms. Peggy
stopped polishing her long, red
nails long enough to teach us evolution.
The world reorganized
into logical relief: this theory
could be understood, not just “believed.”
Chains of life rose and fell
like war stories sung, with the unluckily
unsuitable unloving or unliving themselves
into oblivion (this is most of them) while
something not quite a chicken (but very,
very close) lays a fully-chicken egg —
when a man came in, delivered two dozen
long-stemmed red roses with a card
that said, “Peggy, I love you,” and
she tossed her curls and smiled: “Not
winning me back.” But she kept
them on display, and the other
teachers came to see her prize
while I deduced a Punnett Square
for brown and blue eyes. Soon, she
was gone: Ms. Peggy ran away
to go ballooning
over Africa, and drink champagne.
1. Curls
2. Punnett
3. Africa
