Syllabic Debacle
Danica Obradovic
Don’t let them mispronounce your name, Sym-phony.
They won’t know if you don’t correct them; they’ll chop
spritely, instead of digging lengthwise through the center
of the cukes, so cumbersome. You were meant to be discovered
through a spyglass by default. It was D’s fault for asking you to tend
the boats for her. They had no choice but to see you, as they
wafted and picnicked, some nit-picked. “Too skinny, too skinny”
they repeated like birds calling “Tuscany”, and they tried
to fatten you up with their occhi and pseudo-gnocchi. You once
stuffed a foot in your mouth, because language was so difficult
for you, and the less you spoke, the thinner you railed. Subsequently,
the crowd blew up around you. The boats went out in sequence,
and you counted the sub-sequences. One-two-three-four,
the second syllable stressed like your heart. Don’t hold your breath,
Sym-phony. Un-learn to be. Swallow a toe while twirling a baton.
Who cares what people with gregarious coughs think. You never sneeze
to socialize, smart girl. You sneeze to compose, attune with yourself.
DANICA OBRADOVIC gathers thoughts for a living. Some variations of this work have included: writer, neurofeedback coach, census taker. A few more of her poems were recently published in Used Furniture Review.
:: ABOUT :: ISSUES :: SUBMISSIONS :: NEWS ::
| Brenda Anderson :: | The Fimble Wind |
| Evelyn Hampton :: | Hi |
| Savior | |
| Start With Steak | |
| Helen Vitoria :: | White |
| Adam Stoves :: | Ballusional |
| Rose Hunter :: | [taxi] |
| Gary Every :: | Popes on Bicycles |
| Bethany Haug :: | Love in the Park |
| Danielle Lea Buchanan :: | Spawn |
| Lewis Gesner :: | Black Ball |
| David Tomaloff :: | Five Photographs |
| Danica Obradovic :: | The Shortest Ceremony |
| Syllabic Debacle | |
| Mark Walters :: | Caveboy 1 & 2 |
| Larissa Nash :: | The Star |
| Unreal | |
| Jenny McDougal :: | For the Monkey Astronauts of America in the 1950s |
| Adler Planetarium on a Weekend | |
| James Valvis :: | Poem Composed Entirely With Last Lines from James Dickey Poems 1 & 2 |
| T.J. O'Donnell :: | Morning Shift |
| Handmade in Alaska | |
| Emily Glossner Johnson :: | Vladimir Lenin Grown Weary |
| Meg Eden :: | An Old Man Sighted, Planting Poinsettias |
Homage to the Strange Spirits
| Kenneth Patchen :: | Picture Poems |