My mouth took some months to bloom

My words took some weeks to flower

You and I do not speak different languages

We possess different meanings

 

“What is the curl of your tongue?

What is the grind of your teeth?

What is the bow in your brows?

What do you mean?”

 

Your bottom line is neat and fine

Your ballpoint pen bullet-proof

Underlined

 

My point is a right wrong angle

Shaky

My point is obtuse, round, circular?

My purpose is personal

Like a signature

Decoded differently by all

 

Guilty!

Is that what I mean?

No, you! Not me

“But didn’t she?

Doesn’t she?

Isn’t she?”

 

My pen wavers again

Yours has finished writing

Or maybe it never needed to begin

My claim is paper thin

With a sharpened pencil you can break its skin

You did

 

What did you mean?

What did you mean?

Did you mean it?

 

Oh, no.

I have twisted my argument into a poem

And someone else has into a haiku, crossword, word search…

I have mixed and muddled the letters of the ABC

That spelt out pain… pin… pan… piano

If you jumble them long enough they go away

What was I saying?

 

We all speak the same language

What you did was not okay

But we possess different meanings

You say: “All I’m guilty of is horseplay”

Horse… course… remorse…

Isn’t that foul play?

And why is it ‘play’ anyway?

Splay… slay… lay…

 

It goes on and on

Now, what do I mean by that?

Letters or predators?

Yes, worse than words

Ah, menacing meanings

Ask me what I mean!