Language
 
It pours out of our mouths
with the viscosity of treacle.
Feel those consonants
clog your teeth, like
toffee or
marshmallows.
 
Could there have been
a better way?
Dumbshow, perhaps,
or semaphore?
Something more
hygienic?
 
As it is, we store
our words in
our kissing cavity,
secreted away,
like drugs in a condom.
They back up into
our sinuses
with saliva and phlegm,
waste products,
effluvia.
Better out than in.
Speech is a necessary
evacuation.
Now wash your hands.

Melanie Branton