Words on the Thirteenth Month of Samuel
- Words on the Thirteenth Month of Samuel
Is this what they call a Sam?or "Sam-Well," the samethat is, in the untranslatablelanguage of the heart, "Sweep,"and "El Sweepo"and "Sweepy Doodledeedo,'like the song of sunriseinspiring endless appellations?
Day or nightit springs up in its crib,with no account of hours, to braythe day into being;What does the doggie say?What does the kitty say?What does the donkey say?--no sweeter or more humblebow or meow or hee-haw. [End Page 133]
On the floor of a dodgem day care,abandoned by Ms. Hassled, kickedin the head by The Somersault Kid,in a diaper full of doo-doo, it weepsineffable sorrows.
It says da-da and na-na,but mostly, as Sir Francis Bacon urged,it carries on its person what it means,or speaks like William Golding meeting Einsteinon a footbridge at Oxford:"Fish," says Golding, pointing."Ya," Einstein agrees:Lexicon of perfect communion.
Mr. Thirteen Month Samuel:You are Confounder of LinguistsReconciler of Opposites,Divine Demosthenes:Appa, noo-nee, bow-wow, moo. [End Page 134]
Lolette Kuby became a Jew at birth. She became a liberal/progressive as she outthought the dogmas of her communist childhood household. She became a feminist when the Second Wave took hold, as a plenary member of NOW in Cleveland, Ohio. Starting in elementary school, she wrote—poems, articles, stories—with the most recent of six books, Out of Cleveland, a collection of short stories, published in 2008 by Vehicule Press. Before her move to Canada, she taught at the Cleveland State University, and now does freelance editing. She is a member of PEN America. Samuel was her first grandchild. Now there are four others.
