Things Said To Be Ineffable
A book decorates
A nightstand
And a body
Decorates a bed.
The nightstand
May be made
Of plastic, metal,
Or wood,
And is normally
The same
Height as the bed.
Even if they are
Very married,
Lovers tarry
And aver
And aver and
Tarry. Finally
One of them
Rises
To search
The dictionary
For a word
The other has
Made up.
Copyright © 2017 by Mark Yakich. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 28, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
“The word that one of the lovers has made up might be effable, which really isn't made up at all—it's just gone out of use. Effable sounds like an imprecation, a word that stems from precari, meaning ‘to pray.’ One likes to think that lovers enjoy a lot of praying, not with their words but with their bodies.”
—Mark Yakich
Mark Yakich
Mark Yakich is the author of The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin, 2008). He teaches at Loyola University New Orleans.