in the beginning there was the word.
and the word was sent through
a thousand different telephone lines
and became garbled and distorted.

and so began the long process of sorting out
the wheat from the chaff
the milk from the whey
the truth from the lies
the night from the day.

xylem and phloem.
flotsam and jetsam.
david and goliath.
donner and blitzen.

in the end there was still the word
was it still the same word?