LPiA-24 Nov. 28

[RiverNotch]

The letters of our ancestors
began with F.

Fortune, it meant,
"a comfort to every man".

Then U for the auroch,
the cow's savage Uncle,

and Th, for Thorns, was once a single symbol,
until we invented shears.

O meant Orifice,
"the beginning of all speech",

while R meant Riding,
where something else begins.

C once meant torch, but better now to say
its light has spread: we have a Conflagration.

G meant Gifts -- its quick successor, W,
meant a splendid Windfall

unknowingly the Herald
of Need, of Ice.

J was a Jackpot for those in the country;
for those in the city, it meant Jellied-eels.

Y meant Yew-wood
for fashioning bows.

P meant Pear-wood
for fashioning lutes.

Happily, even the ancients had to struggle
seeking something that signified X

(they went with elk-sedge, another prickly plant)
although they lacked entirely Q and Z.

S meant the Sun, while T was a kind of Trick
being, in Truth, a proper name.

B was for Birch. E was for Equines,
back then Man's best friend,

and L was for Lakes,
feared as much as the sea.

Ng, once again just one symbol,
once again was another

proper name: Ing, or Ingvi-Freya,
"the first among the Danes".

Here, E was doubled
through the Estate.

The wood of the Ash birthed spears,
that of the Oak birthed ships,

and both often led to the Grave,
to the end of all one's Days.

Finally, one more letter was doubled:
here again was the bow, with its Yeoman taking down

a passion-bearing king,
an ancient way of writing.