Poetry by Anthony Alegrete
Full Body Exercise
Do __y __ ou know the color of a word’s absence?
_I_ _ c _ ouldn’t tell you, anything about a word’s a-bsence
even when you can’t__t_ discern the word
f-_f rom a shattered syllable know
it is still there, -_I don’t know the color of
an -absence but I do know that when words leave
they leave v_violently, every vowel lay laced
in ra-Azors. Know that some words carry weight and others
carry bAggage. Pronouncing heavy words is just like lifting
heavy objects. You’re aaalways supposed to breathe into the actions
that test your body’s limits, the flexibility of cheek skin is not like
the fleexiblity of muscle fibers. Growing back stiffer
isn’t always s-s-stronger_. S-Sometimes I think my tongue
will fall off from the movement but o-others
I remember, how they tell me the t-ongue
is the body’s strongest muscle.-
Etymology
The words never come when I want them to/ and I guess that’s just a part of our terms and
conditions//I guess these kinds of things are signed with the
tongue//Ineverhadasayinthematter//stuttering never allows for a say in the matter// the halls of school
of my speech therapist were always colder than the halls of my own// when you’re 11 how do you
not take that as a sign of something// that there must be a reason you’re in a public school building
practically alone//something/must be of problem//every speech therapist has a treasure box/just a
thing they do// things feel less like a problem when they're giving you presents/// my last speech
therapist threw two person ice cream “parties”///back then I collected calculators/it just made
sense to unify things//my favorite one was a yellow sun/each ray curved and bounced in silicone
confidence/and it was smooth to the touch//I liked how smooth it was//I don’t remember why
but I remember crying on the way home of my last speech therapist/staring at a park//I think I was
holding the calculator//-and my mother and I might’ve gotten out// and swung on the swing set//
