Tongue-Tide
My mouth is full of spit and malapropisms
like “You could have hit me with a fender”
and “Having one wife is called monotony”
and I shake my head at some of what my tongue has done
like licking a coat of lacquer or wearing a coat of liquor
and when my head shakes my tongue shakes inside of it
and my teeth rot away like an old fence
and old fences make old neighbors
as a poet almost said, his words like butterflies
I caught in the net I call my ears which didn’t
recognize the efforts of my own tongue
silenced as I stood in lines in school hallways
bitten bloody as a bully dared me to say just
what I thought when what I thought was
I wonder who gave this guy a badge and thus
my tongue got trained my tongue managed
to become a three-piece suit which come to think of it
may be what people mean by tongue-tied I don’t know
but holding a job often meant holding my tongue
which inspired my breath to float so far away
I thought I’d never catch it so no wonder the words
don’t come when I need them or come out wrong
Love the wit in this, Tom. As usual, so many great lines. “My teeth rot away like an old fence
and old fences make old neighbors ” like this one.
My favorite line is ” my tongue managed to become a three-piece suit ”
And the shape, poem sits thick.
Nice work!
Free the tongue! Free the tongue! I would buy the t-shirt.
The language is rich and playful. I love the voice in the poem too. A favorite of yours so far.
excellent title qualifying the poem’s final line
Fun!
Love that opening line–the perfect intro to the speaker’s bitter tinge.