Sunday, October 12, 2014

Just a Word (a poem)

My raised eyebrow and intake of breath amuse her.
‘It’s just a word,’ she says with certainty,
this girl who looks too young to know.

True, we hear it everywhere,
even in movies portraying ancient times,
since saucy words from then no longer startle.

Repetition removes shock as well as meaning.
Yet – without attention to context – that word
gave The King’s Speech an R – for language.

I replay the encounter in my mind.
With so many words to choose from,
why get stuck on "f**k."

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