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Poetry
by Michael Pacey
Silent Letters
Orthographic reforms
demand the erasure
of silent letters,
“unnecessary vestiges.”
But if you listen closely...
the G in gnaw and gnarl—
how the silent g’s throttled presence
helps express the verbs’ difficult tension.
And gnash... In phlegm the g suggests
difficulty in breathing, something
caught in your throat (it’s the g).
Likewise, the K in knot, just to slip a wrinkle
in the string right from the start,
and in knead and knuckles,
that muted muscle sense.
Or beginning knife: to keep the tip safe
in a sheath of silence.
The W in wrist adds that play,
that flash of superfluous dexterity
the word otherwise lacks.
Notice how the T in whistle steps aside
to let your whistling whoosh by,
the B in subtle helps define that word.
As the b at the end of thumb underlines
the denotation: odd one out.
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[Distillate © HA&L + Michael Pacey | {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]
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