The Charm Against the Language of Politics

Say over and over the names of things, 

the clean nouns: weeping birch, bloodstone, tanager, 

Banshee damask rose. Read field guides, atlases, 

gravestones. At the store, bless each apple 

by kind: McIntosh, Winesap, Delicious, Jonathan. 

Enunciate the vegetables and herbs: okra, calendula. 

 Go deeper into the terms of some small landscape: 

spiders, for example. Then, after a speech on 

compromising the environment for technology, 

recite the tough, silky structure of webs: 

tropical stick, ladder web, mesh web, filmy dome, funnel, 

trap door. When you have compared the candidates’ slippery

platforms, chant the spiders: comb footed, round headed, 

garden cross, feather legged, ogre faced, black widow. 

Remember that most short verbs are ethical: hatch, grow, 

spin, trap, eat. Dig deep, pronounce clearly, pull the words 

in over your head. Hole up 

for the duration.

--Veronica Patterson