He lost count, so he tatooed his own scars over his arms...

He etched,

         Willis, Claudia, Quentin, 

         Mitts (with an asterik, she was the first of his kids to go in adulthood)

         Sheeva, Men, Steven

          Manno-, Maxxan, Maxxax (he stammered over pronunciation

          and preserved misspellings on the offchance he might be right)

         "Children," a composite of non-survivors of the infant mortality rate

Rob, he was a walking, breathing memorial.

But he exhausted the space of his skin

and the names blotted out, 

the Yvonne erased the Ricks in a scribbled shroud.

Mitts overlapped with Pats,

The names overflowed his mind,

he spewed out the Wenton, the Patrice, the another Steven,

He began ripping off the dogtags with the

           Danny, Janet, Landis, the etercas

and continued to slung it 

when his neck shattered

beneath the weight