KJ Hannah Greenberg’s most recent poem to appear here was “Perturbation” (February 2020).

Oratory Redefined
By KJ Hannah Greenberg

Life’s ramming into the intestines of hapless publics hurts.
Feelings not wrought from paillette fabric nor spun from silk
Create patterns that cannot be dried in herbal sheds or laundromats.

Plus, addressing humanity’s unfortunate glut of unspeakable acts
Brings rapacious spewing of vitriol, sprinkling of disgust, enzymatic
Madness, proves rivened relations rot akin to few connubial goings-on.

We more readily prevent death than the deconstruction of cultural
Channels. Rhetoric’s ultimate advantage over wishful thinking begins
Where casual means of parsing indigenous assemblages influences men.

Although the issue from a single word cannot produce revolutions,
Motes contribute change. Language forces contemplations, occasions
Others to deliberate, perhaps deter, civilization’s loathsome inattention.

Upon accepting that very bad sorts of business do occur, upon
Appreciating the appeal of twisted linguistic impacts, our interactive
Mentations will again reinforce regular hugs, home-cooked meals, gerbils.

Thereafter, any redolent discourse, similarly, will encourage flâneurs
To wax accountable. As soon as former lifetimes’ balikbayan boxes, all
Categorical detritus, morph to bouquets of grandiloquence, we will triumph.