Bouncing peculiarity of modernspeak
this rising intonation thing Helium-filled inflections
attaching themselves to the ends of sentences?
like trial balloons?
And they say it may have migrated
from Norway? or places like North Dakota?
Infectious as the common cold
a viral epidemic ubiquitous to Southern California?, Canada?
On college campuses, rising
from the Petri dish of culture,
taking up residence in the mouth of the nation?
to help the national government? revitalize Iraq’s economy? says GW Bush,
the meme infecting dudes too?
My daughter’s boyfriend says, I like never want to speak to you?
and her boss shouts, You’re so totally fired?
And my doctor says, My name is Dr. John?
And you have had an aneurism of like the brain?
But don’t worry?
I’m sure you will be totally okay?
A speech/language pathologist currently working with preschoolers and adult literacy students, Millman has had poems published in the U.S. 1 Summer Fiction issue, US1 Worksheets, Off the Coast, the Sow’s Ear, and other literary journals.
