Systematically
A growing list of words and materials is being scrubbed
from government . . . 350+ words, encompassing even desirable goals
like “safe drinking water.” ~ Pen America
.
We learn a word a day until middle age. Then words go missing
like reading glasses, old addresses, the name of that actor.
We lose words as vowels shift, hard sounds fall from use.
Our twitter-light became twilight. Lost words, seemingly
replaced, as many more become commonplace, given slang,
sociocultural subcultures, the multicultural resistance to
power. You know a keeper when you hear it. Like hepeating:
he-said-it-after-she-said-it-and-he-got-credit. Like cap. Like
no cap. Though there’s still nothing adequate to call a socially
networked lie that rolls out on a calendar plan. No one word big
enough for the lying of the biggest lying liars who lie. Though
political comes close. Lying as art, sport, performance, criminal
enterprise. Liars produce more words. Ask more questions. Refer
to the senses, the better to taste your blood. Liars are careful with
pronouns, to orient blame outward. She, still approved. He. But
not they/them. No longer a female or woman, one may still be
termed a man. If not Native American. Advocate. Elderly.
Victim. I know. You are more than your descriptors, as am I,
speaker of poem, breaking that wall. When they came for my
words, the doorbell stayed stuck, like an alarm, and I wanted
an all-inclusive term to convey this feeling when machines get
set to delete diversity, inclusion, equity, when some form of
“we” searches to destroy cultural sensitivity by command. We
live at a loss for words, quite naturally, need no government
intervention. Yet here we are, trashing terms, some going back to
Middle English, Middle Ages: So be it. Goody, I am all the lost words
for women: magdalena, pythoness, quidnunc, scold. I am no gender.
In this language-fluid world
We are all facets of all sexes
Swains and varlets, all
Raised by teachers, Michigan native Jessica Cohn set out to teach language arts but ended up in writing and editing in newsrooms and educational publishing houses. The author of dozens of nonfiction books, Cohn revels in the way poems say what cannot otherwise be said. Her debut collection, GRATITUDE DIARY, was named the 2025 Great Northwest Book Festival winner for poetry. Please see jessicacohn.net for more information.