nearness of our nearness


words
who we are and how

like our cousins’ tongues
lick us clean
wash dirt that clings comb lice

pick tics syllable by syllable

nibble skin just to nibble
the nibbling joke or riddle
passed from tips of bon mots fingers

or ah the emerald phrase
tends to scars

caress of sentence soothing flesh
bobbing jaw and chewing lips
of paragraphs preening

palming sounds salving

or poking hands
hissing nipping spitting protection

as cheeks neck chest in monologue
wrestle
chest neck cheeks

wresting terms in turning
swift as wrists twist
in staying or checking foes

and mouths and ears of essays
sculpting pacts

kisses of ordered care
open

to what can bind

what from birth
mauling arms know and lavish
jabber blabber and say

from the mind of our minds
in the when and why of

words
who we are and how




John Kryder



This poem was inspired by Robin Dunbar’s thesis in
Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Human Language.



Poems