A Chinese Radical Poem by Morgan Michaels

'C'mon', I said, 'admit it. It doesn't really say anything. Or, it says anything you want, rather. Of course, it's pretty and all'.

We sat by the river at an old card table, sipping green tea from small cups. It would soon be evening and the moon was due. The table was not lame and the tea did not spill, nevertheless. Nearby, some yellow willow wands decorated with new, green sprigs dangled actively when the wind fell or rose passively when it blew. Some small tree spiders were busily spinning webs in the branches.

She covered her mouth with her hand as if her teeth were bad and needed shielding- they weren't and didn't.

'Well, maybe it's as you say, and maybe it isn't'.

Her English wasn't so good.

Between us, on the tabletop, flat out, lay an open book. The pages were blank except for some up and down rows of writing- if you want to call Chinese writing writing.

'Now, for instance', I pressed, looking hard at the lists of rachitic, tic-tak-toe figures- 'which is the one for 'M'.

(I'm fond of 'M')

'It doesn't work like that', she laughed, spilling not a drop.

'Well, how does it work, then', I demanded, watching the willows.

She slipped on the role of pedagogue as easily as a hand slips into a silken glove.

I remembered learning to read- learning to sound out letters that spelled words. Tough at first, I can only say it got easier. The forest of literacy was new, and every tree had a name. But of the twenty-seven, only a few letters were hard. Only the X, Y and Z were elusive- were changeable and varied from word to word. It was easier to just learn the words by sight. This happened, eventually. Finally, one no longer took the time to puzzle, in cases featuring these exotics. Puzzling over words, themselves, in rational and orderly combination, soon took precedence over letter crunching- since the real money was in the sentence's meaning- best told by their words, not by their individual letters, alone or in combination. Less and less, I relied on letters to be sounded into meaningful words. More and more, I relied on a saved-up store of words that combined in a sensible way. Withdrawals came from the word bank, and must need be replaced with interest. Letters made words and words made sentences and sentences made sense.
I cannot tell the age when focus on letters was replaced by focus on the seemingly endless number of words....