18 January 2013

Readability: the dietetics of words

you read me 


like a book
cover to cover
voraciously seeking
my
deeper meaning
...inferencing my tone
and theme
... developing  my
character
... puzzling out the precepts of my plot

or 
like a newspaper
hungrily gleaning
whatever truth you can find
amid the posturing
and etiquette 
and politeness
of my rigid columns
and perfected typeface 
and marginalized existence

or
like the back of the cereal box
--trying to ascertain my
nutritional value...
asking yourself if my
sweetness
is all natural
or, rather,
(as so often the case in this world)
artificially
constructed with 
such attention
to detail
and
complexity
in an attempt to
recreate 
simplicity
--questioning
whether I 
really contain 
the ingredients
you want
and whether or not
what 
you want 
is 
what 
you 
need. 


or
like a poem
--focusing on finding
the rhythm
(of my heart,
of my days,
of my mind)
intermittent iambs?
troubled trochees?
doubtful dactyls?
sporadic spondees?
airy anapests?
--lingering over words
and wondering
how they 
made
their way
into my
composition
--keeping your dictionary
at hand
for those words
in my stanzas
with which you 
are not
familiar
(though they be
few
and far between)

or
like a prayer
trembling on your 
lips
half hope
half fear
all 
benediction

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