I Suffer From Verbigeration! Poem by Margaret Alice

Now I know what’s wrong with me
I suffer from verbigeration -
I run about chanting
Nikita-kita Khrushchev
Nikita-kita Khrushchev
over and over again
until everybody is going insane

Or while washing dishes
I chant the same refrain
Tony Moneo, where is Tony Moneo?
Tony Moneo, where is Tony Moneo?
until somebody screams
for me to pipe down

I did not know why
this happened again and again
but with the help of the term
verbigeration at hand
I can answer their frustrated queries
when next I launch into
the obsessive repetition of
Forte fortissimo, forte fortissimo
Pianino, pianino, pianino…

It might not save me
from their hateful stares in despair
but at least they’ll understand
it’s out of my hands –
a genetic disposition,
a brain malfunction,
an endless verbigeration!