Pages

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Dyslexic Dosido

These letters dance, spun too fast,
hopping spaces, changing places,

coming apart, re-assembling
in dyslexic dosido.

Their glee-filled, false steps kick aside
punctuation's too-stern stops,

undoing its stressful beats,
with a quick slip, dip and elide.

They make meaning a mean thing,
dressed loose in flimsy flowered shift,

and force my eyes to linger long,
caressing its rounded shape.

Francis Scudellari

3 comments:

Jena Isle said...

Quite intriguing poem. Had to re read to fathom its meaning. I don't want to say it as I may appear dumb if I got it wrong. (winks)

Unknown said...

My father is Dyslexic, and I am not sure if this poem is literal in a description of that condition, but it sure is a lovely way of describing some things I've imagined my father going through.

How intriguing that you would compare this mantle of clinical diagnostics: "the condition dyslexia" to dancing. And it really works.

Francis Scudellari said...

@Jena The meaning is always shifting :)

@Andy The poem is definitely not a literal description of dyslexia. I have moments where I read too fast and experience a kind of dyslexia, but I don't want to characterize the problem beyond what I experience. For me the letters appear to shift before my eyes, and create alternate meanings. That's what I tried to capture in the poem.