Nine O Nine

The secret of all palindromes,
The dark secret of palindromes,

Including short palindromic
Repeats, is that they really aren’t.

Crab-like, carcinic, Sotadic—
No symmetry echoes fully,

Any more than any echo
Ever returns completely whole—

Even the Sator Square conceals
The singular name Arepo,

Which may be opera, work, spelled
Backward, but isn’t work’s reverse.

Look at numerical versions
Like 11:11 or

2002 or 001
100–those sequences seem

Convertible, but they’re place names
For very different places.

Nothing occurs twice in any
Direction. Once and only once,

However similar the fetch—
Any echo can confirm this.