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Showing posts from September 10, 2013

Tonight's Poet Corner: Hiccup Brew

Hiccup Brew by Belinda Roddie August was deceivingly short, so when September swept in wearing slippers, I took it upon myself to visit every pub in the autumn and savor a draft from a frosted glass every day. It was around the beginning of the leaves' descent that I found a friend with a chronic case of hiccups, which gave his words a rhythm like no other, and I could pound out an accompaniment with my fists on the bar table as the other patrons, and the bartender, listened in. I asked him,  "Do you do anything to fix your hiccups? Like,  what's the doctor's orders?" And he smiled and said, "Doctor's-mm-orders? Mm-no. I-mm-enjoy-mm-my little ditty." And so he did, because he was his own little record player, with the needle skipping once in a while, in always that mm-mm-mm murmur, swilling brew so the bubbles crackled with the curve of his throat.

Today's OneWord: Timid

"He's very timid, isn't he?" We watched him by the window, seeing how he kept to himself in the corner of the daycare center. A small, pink stuffed dinosaur lay on its back beside him - plush, big-toed feet pointed up to the ceiling, nowhere to stand or walk on. I nodded and looked at the daycare director. "Don't worry," I said. "Nothing serious - he's just introverted. Some day, the kids will understand that."