I
I named my children from the books I read

I read the works of philosophers, the greats:
ideas of Descartes, Hume, and Socrates.
I see myself in The School of Athens,
thinking about thinking near Greek columns, vaults.

I read the writings by Edgar Dale, he said:
from concrete to abstract is the path he led.
Socratic: husband and wife arguing,
she douses water when she loses the debate.

I read the book by Helen Smith who'd disparage:
young men are no longer fans of marriage.
When the wife leaves, she takes pots, stoves, water.
Nothing left to him but his tattered cloth.

II
My First Born is Named after David Hume

The sun goes down, rises at dawn
the moon goes up,
drops in the break of day
one assumes the future will behave
in the same way as the past
but nature is not uniform
in the time-lapse of the future
when the last black hole evaporates,
a falling object could float in the sky
or maybe only a sea of photons
in the distant future,
my world will end
not in fire but in ice
not with a bang
but with a meaningless time.
Son, you are me and not me
we can't change the outside world
control that which you can
in the distant future,
the sun may no longer rise,
the moon may no longer fall.

III
Dale's Cone of Experience

to fill up a cylindrical clay jar
one has to fetch water from a hand pump

one stone throw from jar to the pitcher pump
bringing three cone buckets of H2O

gurgling, bubbling, a soothing sound
as water level rises high

to fill up a cylindrical clay jar
it also needs to be empty.

IV
Helen of Fogtown

With her beauty, wit, and intelligence
men will send thousands of ships

TV anchors interrogate their guest
"men must man up," says one
"I'm a newlywed in euphoria," says another
"why men have not written about this?"

in a small, dim room
a bulb hanging on the ceiling
light shines over her head. 
In the hospital, my baby is born
her mother named her Princess
I named her after Dr. Helen Smith
who wrote The Scarred Heart, Men on Strike

she's the Helen who'll tell Paris
that men are getting a raw deal

the story begins with men besieging
the walled city of Barbieland.

V

I named my children from the books I read,
I am Homer, I write the Odyssey they'll tread.