PolypAuthor(s): Michael DavidsonSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer, 1996), p. 48Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20154250 .

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Michael Davidson

Polyp

This Summer they are replacing the voice

with consonants performed by the lips and tongue

that penetrate your mouth when we speak

and find ourselves in what sound furthers,

then the anemone opens, flutters and folds around

the sound of water, the letter five

I can't pronounce these silences without damaging

us, the little phonemes we practice

before replacing the receiver,

what else is the voice for if not the social,

bodied like blips on a grid so that if an island is invaded by sound

language is waiting to speak it into hats

and medals, I read the paper in silence

not believing anything, but "we" is speaking in its vowels, the U into which everything pours,

the A, foreign to myself, on a good day

I remember the infractions as clearly as a ship

on a good day something has been written

and speaks back.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:27:07 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions