Lineage

The lines on paper
tell the fiction of words.
I can not restrict the shadows
of their symbols no more than I
can take away my birth.

There are colors that deepen
with syllables, and shades
that fade with tense -
I could take away their lineaments,
but even empty branches wait
for a cipher to name its home.

I will hold them
that they may slip away -
press them to a sheet
that they may disappear.