The Mud That Forms Letters Poem by Denis Mair

at the edge-tips where letters declare their identities

some letter-parts don't join to make any particular grapheme

they are abortive quasi-letters that won't commit

to any recognized type (heh heh)

graphogenesis must have its lumpish would-be forms

that rise for a moment out of letter-forming mud

like mud people made by the creatress on her first attempt

the thought of such mud gives me vertigo—

such an expanse of unrecognizables

so rarely highlighted for attention

my inspiration wants to go on an expedition

to thrash through marshes in hip-wader boots

because those few flecks of recognizability

keeping distant from the margins, high-and-dry

have been privileged for too long