Like hermit crabs to sea

LIKE HERMIT CRABS TO SEA
published in Redivider, Spring 2005



I dreamt I was losing lnaugage –
words had sepeed thorugh my ear
as I lay on my side.

Letters scttaeerd about the kitcehn floor
wtih cheerios and curmbs of corn bread.
Tehy snuck through broom brsitels,
jumped like franitc fleas,
jmbueld togetehr then brkoe apart:
the hook of a y and the dot of an i
froilcked particularly, maikng only
the mufefld, scartichng sound of ccokrocah legs against cold tile.

On hnads and knees I tired to pick them up
one by one
but tehy were slitehry fcukres, mercuiral eevn.
More alramnigly, they had quite taken to life without me.

I failed to ctach them with my hands,
next I falied with my eyes:
I tried to read tehm into place, to mkae sense of the new wrods
they had decided to make.
No, if you’ve eevr tried to read in a deram
you konw what happnes: you can go crzay that way.

When I straetd to cuss, they heleed.
Words spoekn have no letetrs,
but letters will fololw any words
like hermit crabs to sea,
jostling over one another,
rolling down the stairs, clacking louder as they near you
but never breaking.

That knid of obeisance scares me
so I sitlled my voice.

I let tehm go to wahetver oecan they will.
Now they’re lreannig to foalt.