saraswati

saraswati: ballad of a dyslexic bard

Media: Found Objects Wall Sculpture
Dimensions: 12" x 36"
Date of Work: 03/04

Sing! I sing of words misspelled
the unpunctuated clause
the unspaced line that runs like ancient Latin on and on

I sing the sting of spelling bee’s
the impending doom of great beginnings
the stub of chalk that will not talk
it’s way across the waiting slate!
The whispered slights behind the back
the D that stands for dummy-
hotter then Hester’s shameful letter
burning red upon the cheek!

I sing of eyes that stutter slow across the page
that snag upon the shoal of silent E’s
the inside joke of X that sounds like Z:
unsounded letters that lurk like waiting sharks
below the inky waves of papers bone white sea

I sing of childhood taunts,
the mock we took for granted,
of quiet boys chosen last for teams
that grow up into men who laugh too loud
while pointing out their flaws
before others have a chance to see.

I sing of mouths that move the silent word to sound
amplifying every vowel as we read.
The heroic failures we-
who bravely try again to ply the pen to page,
breaking every law as we go down,
spelling the world the way it ought to sound.
writing out our lives phonetically
the way we did
before old Webster bade us sing like he!
(poetry by Dane O’Hara)