Zayin

Zayin, the dagger

One cross-guard slipped

For weaponized words

The alphabet's equipped

It once was the seventh

In our letter line

Until the Romans didn't 

Need the sign

They brought it back

For the odd Greek phrase

But by then it had already

Lost its place

Wye

Wye, the last letter

Derived from 'waw' 

And just like

The other four

The Romans took it

From the Greek

For borrowed words

With sounds unique

The symbol just

A long-legged 'v' 

Shoved to the back

Where none can see

Samekh

Samekh, the fish

A peculiar glyph

With an historically

Fishy whiff

Not only does it not

Resemble its name

But none of the ancients

Pronounced it the same

To the Romans it was

Very rarely a letter

And they shoved it to the end

Because they didn't know any better

Wen

Wen, another evolution

Anglo-Saxon now

Combining two letters

To form a new sound

The medieval confusion

Still clear to see

With double-'u' over here

And in France double-'v' 

Even here

We blend the two

With uppercase double-'v' 

And lowercase double-'u' 

Vee

Vee, the late addition

Sister of 'U'

Chiseled by Romans

On a column or two

Those medieval scribes

Decided again

To take one letter

And split it in twain 

A consonant and

A vowel sound

One straight edged

The other round

Upsilon

Upsilon, a Greek form

Of our old friend

Cerastes the serpent

With no end

The Phoenician 'waw' 

That then arose

Gave birth to four letters

Snakelets, I suppose

'U' and 'V' 

Were twins from the start

Until medieval scholars 

Split them apart

Taw

Taw, the mark

The universal cross

To sign one's name

When literacy is lost

Probably the first

Of all letters to exist

And ironically the last

In the Semitic list

The remaining glyphs

In our letter herd

Being lumped by the Romans

For Greek loan words

Sameth

Sameth, the post

You may question how

A vertical plank

Is so curvy now

It began as the Egyptian

Hieroglyph 'Sword'

Straight blade and cross-piece

Your illustrative reward

But the sinuous shape

Of our modern letter

Comes from 'shin' for teeth

Which suits it better

Resh

Resh, the head

House of the mind

Whereas the 'Q' 

Was a view from behind

The 'R' relays

A head in profile

Long-necked

Modigliani-style

Its sweeping foot

To help it stand

Was added by

A Roman hand

Qoph

Qoph, the monkey

The trickster sign

The history of which

Is undefined

Did the Phoenicians 

Fear or revere 

Apes so much

To include them here

Formed of a body and tail

But it is said

It really represents

A neck and a head

Pe

Pe, the mouth

A physical sound

The shape of the lips

Pursed then round

A plosive puff

With single tail

Like someone drew a moustache

But failed

A pair of glasses

Cut in two

The lowercase

p and q

Ayin

Ayin, the eye

Whose pupil was there

Until the Greeks blinked

And left it bare

So obvious the round

And perfect shape

Should be an eye

Wide agape

The central balance

Through which to view 

Every word

And see each letter anew 

Nahas

Nahas, the snake

In Egyptian minds

Became Nun, the fish

In Phoenician times

Did the fish mean serpent

Or maybe an eel

Or perhaps water

Cut with a keel

I always thought 's' 

Would be the serpent sign

But for that we'll wait

And see what we find

Mem

Mem, the owl

Wisest of birds

I've no idea if 'memory'

Comes from that word

Not likely as

I'm mixing forms

Of Egyptian and

Phoenician norms

'Memory' is actually 

Indo-European stem

From 'men-', to think, 

Unrelated to mem

Lamedh

Lamedh, the lash

Control and force

For moving your flock 

For leading your horse

Its original hieroglyph 

In cartouche

Was a lion laying

Long and louche

In Ptolemy and

Cleopatra found

On the Rosetta Stone

Dragged from the ground

Kaph

Kaph, the outstretched palm

The second glyph derived

From our primary limb

To have survived

There may be magick

Stored in that hand

Those Semitic tribes

Were palmistry fans

Reading the future

In creases and lines

As I sit here

Studying their signs

Jay

J, the hooked 'I'

A latecomer to the fray

Some time in the Middle Ages

A scribe wrote it that way

There are two other entries

At our command

Turning up late

As fashion demands

Letters taste different

When tongues trip the syllabic range

And like everything else in life

Tastes change

Yodh

Yodh, the hand

Bent at the wrist 

I'm not sure what caused

Such a specific sign to exist

The Greeks called it 'Iota' 

Something too small to count

From which we get 'jot' 

A tiny amount

They also removed

The characteristic kink 

That signified Yodh's

Physical link

Kheth

Kheth, the fence

To protect and divide

To keep your sheep

From the other side

At first three-barred

'Til two fell away

Leaving the letter

We use today

A glottal cough

A lengthened' E'

The sound was whatever

It wanted to be

Gamma

Gamma and Gimel

As we've already heard

Covered C or G

In many words

Until 312 BC

When an order was sworn

By Appius Claudius Caecus

And G was born

Yes, the same Appius

Who built the Appian Way

A man of many legacies

To this day

Cerastes

Cerastes, the horned serpent

Of Egyptian times

A pictogram

Reduced to 3 lines

To my eye it looked

More like a snail

But to the Phoenicians

It was Waw, the nail

And so it moved

Through meaning and sound

Coming and going

But sticking around

He

He, the first unknown

Unpronounceable in Greek

A letter now so common

With beginnings so meek

Like most vowels

It has been tossed

Between busy consonants

Its meaning lost

Flipped back and forth

Its tail removed

It stuck around

Its usefulness proved 

Daleth

Daleth, the door

The passage between

Keeper without

And keeper within

Not a form that

An Egyptian would understand

Who knew it as Deret

Their symbol for hand

It seems to me

Remarkably apt

For hands and doors

To be so enwrapped 

Gimel

Gimel, the camel

Carrier of life

Intertwined with G

As man and wife

Stoical, resourceful

Traveler of miles

Carrier of humans

Carrier of child

The first three letters

Encompass the need

For travel, shelter

Farm and feed

Beth

Beth, the house

Hearth and home

Gathering in safety

No longer alone

Bethlehem

House of bread

All human need

So simply said

First of many

First of mine

My most beloved

Of all signs

Alef

Alef, the first

Phoenician ox

Leading the team

Pulling the box

Of letterforms

A leaded case

Every glyph

In its place

A pair of horns

An arrowhead

Found in alive

Found in dead