Month: September 2022

mot juste

it’s a glorious search, a tremendous
endeavor!—the countless folded dictionary
pages; the endless thesaurus tabs, thumbed
and bruised; the cross-outs and arrows and
pairs of parentheses; the possibilities…

the gray hairs and sleepless nights;
the hollow treasure chest eyes—

what takes moments to read
can take hours to write,
a humiliating hunt,
an indefatigable journey—
for the elixir, the sermon;
for the perfect word in the
perfect place, placed perfectly

we are bound by language,
it controls our every thought
(see Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)
but when you find it—oh my!
when that word is finally found,
after all your struggle and strife—
fitting like a key in a lock,
a dress on a bride,
like your hand in mine—
the ultimate reward may be for
you and only you, but oh!
how it pays off just the same—

how your soul belts melodies,
tones of golden freedom,
compositions—no,
symphonies!—of fulfilled soul

and when you come to find the word
you fought for and found—that
combination of letters signifying
an agreed upon meaning—only exists in
another language, when that assembly
of symbols representing an understood
concept epitomizes itself,
it’s even better—

it’s better than better, even—
it’s extravagant!—
even if that word is actually two words,
even if only to remind you nothing’s perfect;
that perfection doesn’t exist—
but irony sure as shit does.

(please excuse my French)

Change

I used to have a desk
I’d throw change on
until it cluttered
the whole thing—
dominating
eating it whole—
with no place to write

it grew and grew
bigger and bigger
larger and larger—
a huge coppersilver monster
with a bad case of the Mondays—
piling up
mountainous
spilling off the sides
in metallic waterfalls

the more coins that congregated
the more worthless it became
so finally
one day
I gathered them all up—
I separated them by value
chip chip chipping away
at the ones stuck to the top
from spilt beer and
wine and liquor
over the years

I rolled them up and
I turned them in for cash
and with that cash
I bought a new desk

now things
make a lot more sense
I use it a lot more
and I never let a single cent
touch its surface.