Starling With a Split Tongue

Some boys caught me
In the yard

And with a jackknife they
Split my tongue into speech
So in a phrenological cage
Here in the garage I stay
And say

The cracklewords passersby taught.
I say I know not what
Though I pray I do not pray
Though I curse I do not curse
Though I talk I do not talk

“I thought that made it kinda nice”
I heard her say as she began slipping on the ice
The the I am An a am I
I and am are the & a Who is are? Who saw war?
I rock a little pronoun It does instead of me
I rose as I Nooned as you
Lay down as he or she Begat we, you & they
My eggs are covered with commas

“Yuh remember when she fell down in a fit?”
Reveries Jake from the bottom of the pit.

Before beforeday
While the while is on
Let’s wait till till
I come from from
Down Whence Road

after St. After’s Massacre
Since since is since
Or until if you like
to Whither Bay
but not To-day

As still as infinitives were the Stones
Filled with adjectives were the Trees
And with adverbs the Pond
This all is a recorded announcement
This all is a recorded announcement
“I thought that made it kinda nice”
“Yuh remember..in a fit?”
Darkness deep
Now fills the garage and its town
With wordless sleep.

Who split their tongues? I ask.
Of Giant Jackknife in the sky.
Who split their tongues into lie mask
And lie face; split their hand
Into this way, that way, up and down,
Divided their love into restless hemispheres,
Split into two — one seeing left, one right
Their once one Aldebaran all-seeing eye?
In the larger garage of the endless starlight
Do they not croak as I?