20 November 2022

By Philip Kuepper

Please allow me
manipulate you
with words.
After all, that is
what writing is.
But with me you won’t be led
up the primrose path.
For one thing, we’ll be out
on water in a craft
meant to sail, just for the fun of it.
We will sail the word “boat,”
reasonable enough, in the circumstances.
The “t” of boat will act the mast,
the “b” the bowsprit,
“a” the anchor,
“o” oar.
With these in place
how could we possibly
not sail a course other than true,
even if we sail deliberately 
off course, just for the fun of it.
As it is, off course will probably
prove more interesting anyway.
Why we might just happen upon
some yet undiscovered island,
inhabited by every nautical
word ever written.
How’s that for being grounded
on manipulation.  But we will
have to navigate whatever shoals,
with each watch alert.
Or we might find our boat
manipulated into a cove
out of which there is
no way found.

(13 November 2022)