RAYED OR DAYED

by Heather McHugh 

I'd like to do something to you, and not
just once. I'd like to pudiate and buke.

Reserved is not deserved. You need
your prefix changed? (The bounders did

in grammar school, while I
was thinking it over and

writing it off.  They thought
I didn't understand. I thought

they overstood.) Too often you've been
garded, even stored. I need some new

prefixes too. Despair is not repair. Play fair! 
Or else this love you seem to like will wind up

ciphered and nounced for good.

HMcH taught here and there for 40 years as motormouth and now can wrack her brains for years more on polishing a single sentence. A successor to her Broken English essays will eventuate.  Her latest published books of poetry are FEELER (Sarabande) and Muddy Matterhorn (from Copper Canyon).