A Charm Against The Language of Politics

A Charm Against the Language of Politics

By Veronica Patterson

Say over and over the names of things,
the clean nouns: weeping birch, bloodstone, tanager,
Banshee damask rose. Read field guides, atlases,
gravestones. At the store, bless each apple
by kind: McIntosh, Winesap, Delicious, Jonathan.
Enunciate the vegetables and herbs: okra, calendula.

Go deeper into the terms of some small landscape:

spiders, for example. Then, after a speech on

compromising the environment for technology,

recite the tough, silky structure of webs:

tropical stick, ladder web, mesh web, filmy dome, funnel,

trap door. When you have compared the candidates’ slippery

platforms, chant the spiders: comb footed, round headed,

garden cross, feather legged, ogre faced, black widow.

Remember that most short verbs are ethical: hatch, grow,

spin, trap, eat. Dig deep, pronounce clearly, pull the words

in over your head. Hole up for the duration.