Tuesday, October 4, 2011

E-Z

E-Z

E-Z Keyz and Lox. E-Z Cleaners.
Hertz Carz: Let Yourz Be Ourz.

Why. Z’s in for S’s are repulsive,
twisted the wrong way, sticking

to the teeth as they buzz out the
ends of words. The sound is right,

almost, but heavier, scratching up
the voices dragging it out. Visually,

even, it is grotesque. The eye’s
stomach churns at the scissored

version of the word. Easy, those
hills you like to drive through,

the meandering freeway, goldenrod,
green fields, the end of the y dangling

down like a cat’s tail as it sits
on the window sill. E-Z slices

out two vowels, tacks the capital
letters together with a hyphen,

scotch tape. A botched surgery,
suggestive of an eye chart, of

weakening vision, an amputated
alphabet. This is not what we want

from experience, life balled-up
and hollowed out, a one-stop shop

so we can get in and get out, forget.
But ease, we do long for that, and

the acknowledgement that when
things break, parts of us must halt,

must ask strangers for repairs
that happen carefully, gently.

3 comments

  1. Wonderful and full of truth. It would be interesting to know who first used the Z as a substitute for S. And one of these days I'm going to call out the company with one of these names who fails to deliver what's promised.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Z’s in for S’s are repulsive,
    twisted the wrong way, sticking to the teeth as they buzz out the
    ends of words."

    How do you come up with stuff like this? As a choral singer, I'm constantly reminded of the important of not stretching out zzzzzzzzz at the end of words :).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was think that last night that when parts of us break we must halt....and I laughed that you find Z repulsive.

    I am mesmerized by Zs and always try to find more Zs although I don't like the sound ZZZZZ. Isn't is zany? Hope you are having a z-free day. xx

    ReplyDelete

The Storialist. All rights reserved. © Maira Gall.