Antimeria
Nora Madonick
Poetry
Antimeria
Just a word,
Mom.
A palindrome but
Not the glorious kind
Like rotator and racecar,
Or the lyrical madam
I’m Adam
of kids’ stuff or the
Fun of kayak.
And certainly not the
Grace of tenet.
Just an m and an m and an oh.
Undecorated but not colorless.
Most solidly a noun spoken
More often than not
As a verb.
Issued as a command
A demand
A whine
A sob
A yell
A wish.
The please and why and c’mon
That sometimes land on one side or the other
Don’t much matter
They’re not what’s stressed
Anyway.
Out loud it can be sandpaper
That grates your teeth, makes you
Clench in search of just a little more
Patience.
A verbal rat-a-tat-tat
right up your spine.
The very sound can make you
Weary behind your eyes
Sometimes so much so your
Lids close to the
Sound that repeats
And repeats
Over and over
Again and again.
Until it doesn’t.
-- Nora Madonick