Size / / /

I was bearded with words.

Prepositions curled around

my mouth, and below

my chin participles

dangled.

I reveled in sideburns Whitmanesque,

and all admired the love-letter

moustaches, ironically drooping

over a hate-mail

goatee.

But the verbose foliage scrawled

along my jaw bored you.

With an eraser I shaved,

watching adjectives

scatter

and nouns pile below me

in the basin. Above

the wordy waste I stared

at the mirror, bald-faced and

mute.


Jamieson Ridenhour is a writer and musician currently based in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he teaches British Literature at the University of Mary. Jamieson can be reached by email at jridenhour@umary.edu.



Jamieson Ridenhour (http://www.jamiesonridenhour.com) is the author of Barking Mad: A Reginald Spiffington Mystery (Typecast, 2011). He is the creator of the award-winning short fairy-tale horror film Cornerboys, as well as editor of the Valancourt edition of Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 vampire novella Carmilla.
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