Noun-ectomy
I have friend who tells me
that her vocabulary
has undergone a radical noun-ectomy
which makes it rather hard for her
to give lucid instructions,
unless she uses gestures. I suspect that she
may well be inventing
a new, interactive language
where all the nouns are gradually replaced
by “thing”, the handy word
that means everything and nothing
I see exasperation on her face.
as the nouns all slip away
and everything’s a thing
conversation becomes a game of cold to hot
as you try to figure out
to which noun she is referring
you touch things to see if she nods or not…
“No, no, get the thing over there. You know, the thing, the little thing behind the big thing. Not that thing, the other thing…”
#214
Linda Studley 