To Gesture and Aloud
Kathy Fish

—with thanks to Charles Dickens

Creetur
the village mawther arranges the boy / the gormless boy / village gorm / “a lone lorn creetur” / the shoes corkscrewed / the formless feet the traipsing / mawther who shouts contumely / the closed windows / the flat gray unshined / any ears offending / the clicketten meows / the serpentine turpentine in a blue bottle / arranges the boy / the gormless boy / village gorm and lone lorn creetur / feet traipsing shouts contumely / the clicketten meows the ears the serpentine / unshined windows closed / moving arranges the blue bottle / hard shoes to corkscrew / hard ears to turn and shout back / the boy arranged estranged / the gorm a spruce a nankeen for a nankeen / to eat and meow / the lone lorn a creetur / arranges the boy traipsing / a little nankeen in haste / a little to eat and traipse / shout contumely and shout contumely / the estranged unshined windows / closed the clicketten fence hissing / hence kissing / a turpentine serpentine / unshine a blue bottle mawther


Unshined
the gray, the gray / flat windows unshined / a happenstance boy / growing, the boy the clicketten with turpentine ears / to gesture and aloud / to crowd and seem unseemly / the village mawther olden loden / golden / moves to eat and / flat and unshined the gormless boy / older than blue / older the stacked stones / the bones / moving arranges / the lone lorn creetur / eyes flat gray unshined / captured contumely shouts offensive / bear with and hard shoes the mawther / a little nankeen an afternoon / happenstance and ugly / the boy to school / to eat and traipse the village / the broken blue bottle the pieces / come to the flat unshined / come to the window hissing nankeen / creetur alone / lone and lorn the mawther / and go without gorm / clicketten’s serpentine ears / flat and unshined and lone / the long lost road / turpentine road / stacked stones and boys / traipsing golden running a happenstance / boy offending / the blue bottle creetur


Mawther
to crowd and offend / to capture contumely / the serpentine boys / arranges to move unseemly / creetur more gormless / more flat unshined / boys the stacked stones the bones / with bear and shoes hard / to corkscrew and blue bottle / now traipse and eat / to beat and golden / capture an afternoon aloud / days for clicketten / now days / the mawther bones the stacked stones the / mawther olden the flat gray unshined / creetur a lone long road / creetur all of happenstance and traipsing / bear with the golden / the broken bottle boys beholden / a little nankeen to gone to spruce / creetur olden / clicketten ears offended / to go, to go / hard ears and shoes to turn and traipse / formless and begotten / forgotten mawther the pieces / the blue bottle serpentine / now the formless going / the boys bones stacking / to corkscrew / arranged and estranged the hissing hence kissing / bear with and go / misbegotten creetur / unshine the blue bottle clicketten

---

Kathy Fish’s Comments

I wrote this in response to a prompt to incorporate into a story several words from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. I fell in love with the sound of these words: creetur, clicketten, mawther, gorm, nankeen, contumely. I gave myself license to use the words however I wished, writing entirely from what pleased my ear. But as I went deeper into the music, the characters and story emerged on their own. "Creetur" and "Mawther," are, for me, quite vivid, and form the sad, dark heart of this trio. I suspect this piece will land for some readers and not for others, which is always the case no matter what one attempts.

Table of Contents