An Early Parable of Words Made Flesh

On the cusp of language, a grandchild
says baboo for moon. Gau-gau means
dog, Santa, a blue car—elasticity here

no less remarkable than a good metaphor,
like the word flower, which may also
mean a mouth poised to open in a lone

woman, or equally lone man. Jeece means
juice or spilled milk, and goblish means
anything, or everything—a warm stew,

the thickened pottage of daily life.
A child teaches any clump of sounds
will suffice, that words are effortless,

and one is to fifty and flower is to moon.
Adam, so the old story goes, in his early
first tongue named aardvark, elephant, cobra,

and all other animals, and like an innocent
knew his wife as Eve, the Mother of All Living,
a flower that smelled of musk and twilight

the moment he reached to her beneath
the baboo moon, the moment they kissed
and their lives became a mess of goblish.

Douglas L. Talley is the author of the poetry collection, Adam's Dream (Parables Publishing 2011). His work has appeared in The American Scholar, Cimarron Review, and other journals and anthologies.

Art by Anne French.