John Levy
Orgasm, Penciled In
The more I buy used poetry books
the more I find penciled remarks
and the more I think the handwriting that seems feminine
yields the interesting. Or maybe it's the men,
too, whose writing looks feminine
whose responses are more curious. Up
near the title of one poem is written,
very small, orgasm, symmetry
with that comma spaced between the words like this:
orgasm , symmetry
– Disappointingly, at least to me, when I
look closely at the tiny cursive it's
oronym – a word I don't know
that turns out not to appear
in my big dictionary. So turn to the Oxford
English Dictionary, keeper of the obsolete, to find
no oronym either. Dear unknown reader,
holding your sharpened pencil, I'm sure
you had no idea you'd give me
false hope with your minuscule
cursive, your promising, promiscuous
Latin? Nym, numb, nymph, word
play, your penciled comment above the poem
like foreplay, denumbing and happily disturbing,
longhand, longing, your gift of a mirage.
Page(s) 123
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