8.2 We Don’t Recall Their Names

by Eric Chaet

Before I leave this life
& in case my words reach
any who understand & care
maybe someone trying
to decide how to proceed
amidst the natural universe
so glorious
& also frequently so
colossally out of proportion
to a single human’s ability to cope
& amidst his or her mainly mad
but occasionally level-headed, even wise
& mainly wicked but more usually
just trying to gain & maintain some sort of balance
& even occasionally kind contemporaries—
I want to acknowledge all those of all times & places on Earth
who never establish their reputations among any
but those who—thru circumstances they didn’t make—
must share grudgingly or lovingly with them
or alternating, now grudgingly, now lovingly
or in grudging & loving mixtures of various proportions—
whose names are not listed in the pantheon of history
whether because they were weak of will or physique
or their nature was ill-adapted to the ephemeral
ideologies & norms of behavior of their day
or because they fiercely held out against those ideologies & norms
motivated by different ideology, different standards
or because by chance before they could successfully
wrestle with how & where they started & what people expected
they were killed by lions, stampedes, bacteria, viruses, or cars
or by bored emperors self-appointed or dubiously elected
or generals or out-of-control captains or sergeants
or by the enraged victims of wars or of so-called law & order
or of the so-called development projects of investors
catered to by swarms of servants assuring them they’re brilliant—
or because they were disinterested in the acclaim
for what their contemporaries would consider accomplishment
preferring to pass thru unnoticed by the deluded & excitable.

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Picture: Texas A & M University Bioinformatics Working Group