All I said I unsay now,
Speaking backwardly,
Raveling webs of words,
Reversing entropy.
But that is not what I meant at all
In order to mean something new,
Trying to re-verb sunrise,
Trying to undo the dew.
Or stirring the coffee slowly.
As if retracing a rune,
Hoping the sugar will undissolve,
Emerging pristine on the spoon.
David Galef is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Mississippi (Oxford). He is a widely published poet and short story writer, whose work has appeared in over 60 journals, including Shenandoah, The Gettysburg Review, and The Formalist.