Just like the Scrabble game of wit and chance,
there was a scramble for Africa. When
alphabeted names begin to dominate
a land. All dependent on a knowledge
of etymology, origins where a word
carries meaning on its back like a camel
carrying cargo across a desert. So, we
see the whim of it, just like ivory
squares tossed form a game-full
destination, as if un-toothing the mouth
of the local, like an elephant barren
without a tusk. The way Scrabble
forms a path, the lettered force of
naming, the ticker-taping of a country
with a new history, claiming it by a throw
of the white/blackness of rolling dice.