24 September 2023

By Philip Kuepper

I sit back, fascinated,
by how words play
with my mind.
Consider the word “shell”.
Consider its use as enclosure.
A shell encloses a nut.
A shell encloses a rower.
Each contains energy,
energy to be used,
the nut, for essential
fat to feed the body,
the rower, to propel
the shell through water,
the same word describing
two quite different situations.
Not only that, shell transitions
from noun to verb, effortlessly.
In one sense, we shell the nut(open it up);
in another, we shell the rower(enclose him).
And in still another sense, the word shell
is shelled of the letters that make up it,
when I spell it out, when I write it down.
I chew on the meat of the nuts of words.

(29 April 2023)