Marks the Spot

Marks the Spot

Codesmith, txt speak, for poetry,
verse never easy, now as π,   
recurring point, ∞ -
Homer, Wordsworth, play away,
LOL, how read the rite,
when one R, mental, can’t sum up?
Where did it first - forever on -
that mistranslation at the core,
in Eden, or whatever lore,
yet every knocking at the door?
Conflicts, raging, every turn.
JHWH wars on ٱللَّٰهُ أَكْبَرُ -
global tetragrammaton.
Without the morse to save our souls,
a dot or dash can kill a child,
both binary and Unicode,
as unclear trans old ♀♂.
Decode encrypt our only hope,
NATO phonetic alphabet,
where juliett meets alfa male -
and ˈælfəbɪt sounds off again -
told printers watched their p’s ⅋ q’s,
both eroteme and ampersand.
Round table square, octagonal
King Arthur’s ֍ a free for all,
though @ has changed the way we talk,
a Ж to find in lexicon.
How lip wrap é when accent è,
tongue tip slip ê when ear un-near,
cedilla ç not used to me,
and pond divides uncommon speak -
is whiskey scotch or Irish tot?
Fair warning ¿ a tool of choice
to keep the sheep pulled from my eyes;
I wear acrylic on my слееве
Cyrillic sleeve is honest too?
Use one ⁋ or two, repeated theme,
my papers marked from α to ε,
only as Ώ not on the scale.




Stephen Kingsnorth

 

Stephen Kingsnorth, retired to Wales from ministry in the Methodist Church with Parkinson’s Disease, has had pieces published by on-line poetry sites, printed journals and anthologies, most recently Poetry Potion, Parkinson’s Art, The Parliament Literary Journal, Sparks of Calliope.