Whenever I seek to send you messages of my affection, the words never grumble, stumble, complain of being turned out early or called up again.
No, they run, leap, squeak with delight to be sent on such a mission. They know where they are going to wake, amuse, or seduce you. They compete to be first. Their dash forward is like a regiment in uncontrollable advance, mixing into an inchoate stream, adverbs tangle with indefinite articles, adjectives preceding nouns, puffing after them and even floating above them unsupervised by a corporal’s guard of verbs, which themselves have abandoned their posts to rush heedless past or trample any punctuation in their path. I see a question mark careen wildly out of control and fall off the page. Words split and merge like rolling drops of mercury as gravity pulls them down line by line.
Surely, they will arrive before you a rabble of gobbledygook, undisciplined by punctuation and with verbs and subjects in loud disagreement. I fear they will suddenly rush over a cliff or over the falls of an uncharted river. Then all will be lost. Pronouns floating face down in deep whirling eddies; adjectives and gerunds rotting in clumps along the riverbanks. There may not be enough left for service to even draw up into haiku formation. You will think me mad in mind or mad in temper to send you an incoherent haiku about venison, cornbread, asparagus, and polar bears.
But, none of this happens. Arriving at the gate before your heart, commas and semi colons blow their fifes and beat their drums. Capital letters unfurl flags and company pennants. “Form to our right by stanza and rhyme!”
Soon, Colonel Title and Major Sub-Heading have them all drawn up in perfect order. They are too far away, and I cannot hear what my words are saying.
Then, a tall denominative in a drum major’s uniform struts to the fore, waves a gold encrusted adverb and the regimental band begins to play.
I can’t place the tune, but the words and I are thrilled to see you open your door and step out to listen to the band and cadence of my words.
