Issue 16 : June 6, 2002
Voice Print
I have said things that would make
a French Foreign Legionaire blanch.
Words have jumped from the black side of my mind
at the speed of regret plus 1
pulling teeth out by the roots
and I have smiled saying them.
That is when the devil stretches with pure joy
waiting to guffaw when I stop cool and lunge
to pull back the venom as if it were a chicken feather
a floating maple key, an old woman's crippled hands
working the remote control of the TV at four AM.
I have had a genius for the verbal hand grenade.
All that sick tar spewed out, all out, I am all out.
I have come back to where I began
forming words with my lips and tongue and teeth.
Tapping them out letter by letter
simple words, carefree words.
Verbal rolls of red carpeting welcoming
like a baby learning to say the names
of new things
one after another.
- William J. Gibson -
Images & text copyright
© William Joseph Gibson 2002
bluetyger is Made in Canada
This poem first appeared in
Grosse Īle and Other Poems
by William J. Gibson
Copyright © William Joseph Gibson 1998
Alburnum Press
Victoria Harbour & Callander, Ontario
Blue Tyger Series #2
First Printing: April 1998
Alburnum Press - Book Orders
P.O. Box 485 - Victoria Harbour, Ontario
Canada LOK 2A0