SEE WITH EYES SHUT

Scumble

Rae Armantrout

Listen (to Armantrout read)

What if I were turned on by seemingly innocent words such as
“scumble,” “pinky,”

or “extrapolate?”

What if I maneuvered conversation in the hope that others would
pronounce these words?

Perhaps the excitement would come from the way the other person
touched them lightly and carelessly with his tongue.

What if “of” were such a hot button?

“Scumble of bushes.”

What if there were a hidden pleasure
in calling one thing
by another’s name?

The Dictonary Game

If saveloy
was a floating object
for the sea that
helped save lives,
If embouchure was the act of setting fire
indoors
to protect from the rain
may be a niche in a
gothic church from where the priest
can invisibly oversee the Sunday mass
or the way of applying the mouth to the mouth piece
If pellagra was a four sided agrarian
or the initial form of communication
before the telegram
and after the letter
If isinglass was a type of fibreglass
used in telescopes for better
dissipation of UV radiation
or a sweet wine from
the vineyards of Sweden
If sassenach was
a saucy english person who eats nachos
or a grizzly looking man from northern Canada
or a rectangular fish that swims sideways in cold waters
If owt was a baby owl who had fallen out of its nest
or a nordic game
in which the players attempted to
eliminate each other from the game
while carrying their women on their backs.

The Dictionary Game
Requirements: Players. A Dictionary.
How to play: Make a list of words nobody knows the meaning of. Read it aloud and ask people to guess the meaning and put it down on paper. Collect papers. Read out at the end, a word and the "meanings" and the original meaning. Now ask them to guess which of the ones read out is the correct one.