NaPoWriMo 2017 - Day 20

Dictionary #

There is an old man
sitting on the sidewalk
who I pass
who has set up a little table
who reads the dictionary
each day

Weathered hands
Finger moving slowly
as he absorbs each word
through his trusty glasses

I tried to read the dictionary once
inevitably beginning with Aardvark
That read is a hard road
Alphabetization making it worse
a, aa, ab, ac….azzzzzzz, b, ba…..
on and on and on
rudimentary combination lock breaking

Reading the dictionary
you must lodge the words into your brain
before you breath them out
through your nose

The old man persists
I have seen him
advancing letter by letter
a glacier of vocabulary

we have spoken
sometimes
his words coming out
all unalphabatized
speaking of other books
other permutations
of the elements
of the dictionary