A Woman Poet's Critique of Words Too Commonly Spoken
Jane Attanucci
Why am I enraged by the words “spoiled rotten”?
How can children be sour milk or moldy berries?
Does the speaker, so often the spoiler, hear
the metaphor, its fetid, dank darkness?
Perhaps the declaration—“spoiled rotten brats”
vindicates the grandiose givers of too much,
their everyday, brown paper bag giving-in.
Is it a given that abundance generates spoilage?
Spoil (v.) spoiled (adj.) spoiler (n.) spoils (n.)
Who spoils? Whose spoils?
What if it weren’t so easy to blame children?
Why am I enraged by the words “spoiled rotten”?
How can children be sour milk or moldy berries?
Does the speaker, so often the spoiler, hear
the metaphor, its fetid, dank darkness?
Perhaps the declaration—“spoiled rotten brats”
vindicates the grandiose givers of too much,
their everyday, brown paper bag giving-in.
Is it a given that abundance generates spoilage?
Spoil (v.) spoiled (adj.) spoiler (n.) spoils (n.)
Who spoils? Whose spoils?
What if it weren’t so easy to blame children?
About the author
Jane Attanucci spent her first career as a professor of psychology and women’s studies. Since retiring, she has studied with David Semanki at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Her work has appeared in The Healing Muse, Blast Furnace, Poetry Quarterly, Third Wednesday and Boston Literary Magazine.