Poem: October 20, 2019

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Isn't it just like candy in your mouth,
those moments when you get to read
aloud- a story at bedtime, a part in
the class play, a poem to yourself,
some paragraph on repeat to anyone
who'll listen. The assonance and
alliteration. The onomatopoeia. Just
words, sweet with feeling, sticky
with meaning, made ours in the
timber of our voices, in the furnace
of our mouths. Words we suck on,
or crack between our teeth, or press
against our cheeks and leave to fade.
A performance, really. Life created,
born of reading, bubbling in the mind
and delivered into the world in airy
whispers and fleshy roars. Shaped in
our bellows, pulled like taffy, the
intimate work of tongue and vocal
chords. The salt of words. The tart
of words. The chewiness and crunch
of words. The sugary slurping of
words unwrapped from their pages
and consumed by the handful, laid
out in bowls for everyone to share.