The Naming

By W. Dale Nelson

This article appeared in the July 21, 2008 edition of The Nation.

July 1, 2008

We give our names to things.
This creek is Cobweb Creek,
named for our cat, who is named
for one of the fairies
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
(Peaseblossom and Mustardseed were too long
And Moth too short).

We called a house
Carapace, and another one
Too Far: too far from where?
Crablike we built the names
around us, giving to Cobweb
Creek an echo of Mustardseed,
giving the closest places
a distance of our own.

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