On Tender Hooks
- by Brian Bilston
Let me cut to the cheese:
every time you open your mouth,
I’m on tender hooks.
You charge at the English language
like a bowl in a china shop.
Please nip it in the butt.
On the spurt of the moment,
the phrases tumble out.
It’s time you gave up the goat.
Curve your enthusiasm.
Don’t give them free range.
The chickens will come home to roast.
Now you are in high dungeon.
You think me a damp squid:
on your phrases I shouldn’t impose.
But they spread like wildflowers
in a doggy-dog world,
and your spear of influence grows.
Timeless words, Isabel. Thanks.
Tom
Tom – Thank *you.*
Well said, Isabel. If you were going to say it again, is there anything you’d add? Subtract? What I didn’t hear, in the broadcasts of various 9/11 remembrances, was any sense that America had learned anything in the last 20 years. Grief, yes. But no sense that American policies might have contributed to the tragedy.
Jim T
Jim – Thanks. As for adding/subtracting, I don’t think I’d get into policy complications in this piece, since the 9/11 attacks weren’t my subject, merely my vehicle, as it were. Terrorism doesn’t arise in a policy vacuum – there is always context, if not exoneration. I suspect these points are better made/considered by folks inside the affected community.
Amen. Thank you for singing about the unsung.
Laurna – Thank you. I find it discouraging, a bit, that I have to remind myself of things I “know” and have to work to keep helpful perspectives (once found) front and centre. Realizations do tend to drift away.
To repeat Jim: Well said
Jim R – 🙂 Many thanks.