How To Hear A Stutter, And: Stutterfied
By Adam Giannelli
Do not say spit it out.
I’m not chewing. I’m humming.
Do not interrupt.
Bask in palpitation.
Do not look away.
The eyes are eloquent.
Do not intercede.
Presumption tapers.
Do not laugh. Nothing
is more human than a tremble.
Do not mimic. The miming of frailty
is the mastering of frailty, and mastery is not frail.
Do not say stop and start again.
A sentence is serendipitous.
Do not interrupt.
I have my own walls already.
Do not say stop and start again.
A word is a stairwell.
Do not hang up.
Make silence your envoy.
Do not ask if I’ve forgotten my name.
A name is not an order. It is an invitation. Do not intercede. Here is my voice,
made of strain and spittle.
Listen. Here
is my voice, seismic.
Patience.
Here is my nonvoice.
Stutterfied
beneath disfluency
I say mosaic
beneath disorder
I say texture say my own species of sigh
beneath distortion
I say a gratuitous greenery
beneath impediment
I say a ghostly percussion a soft marginalia
beneath impurities
I say the body as minute hand as calendar
beneath impairment
I say stuttered
beneath delay
I say migratory say cloud shift
beneath deviation
I say filigree say the body as city lights as cinema
beneath deficiency
I say innocent
beneath abnormal
I say the air of elsewhere say bubbles and buoyant kernels beneath aberration
I say a single commotion say quartet
beneath abrasive
I say my own lunar surface
beneath prolongation
I say prelude say like standing under a marquee
beneath repetitions
I say erratic as freckles as rain against the window
beneath blocks
I say cliffhangers say steeped and slowly poured
beneath unable
I say here harnessing a space
beneath untreated
I say attention say the breadcrumbs between us
beneath unsung
I say here beside you say tendril
