My Will
My last will contains
A grammatical error clause:
If the gender
Or the number
Of a pronoun is wrong,
Then the will is still legal.
It’s too bad Death
Isn’t a stickler for grammar:
There’s no cheating him,
Or her or it—
Or is it them?—
With a technicality.
Amalia Gnanadesikan is a linguist who studies the atoms of writing: the alphabets and other scripts of the world. She is the author of The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet. She has turned to writing poetry in retirement, with her first poem appearing in Vita Brevis. Amalia lives in Maryland with her husband, three cats, and numerous miniature pineapple plants.