Analysis of Jumbled Words: A Poem About Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Jaime K. Pfisterer 1990 (New Jersey)
My friend smiles.
I smile back.
My friend opens their mouth,
the words
come soaring out.
I ready my ears
to catch them.
a passing car smudged the sentence.
My friend laughs.
I laugh too.
Even though
I don’t know what were laughing about.
My friend speaks more.
Maybe I’ll catch the next batch.
My ears squint.
I’m ready…
the wind lifts the letters in the air
and swirls them around,
they settle as a disorganized mesh.
I try to untangle the pieces
but then I feel my friend
staring at me
So I nod.
This convinces my friend that I’m listening and she continues.
I mean, I really am listening.
My brain is just so filled with
the rumbling cars,
the twittering birds,
the howling wind,
the yapping dogs,
the boisterous people,
the rattling of the leaves upon the sidewalk.
It’s too much of everything all at once.
I need to catch my friend’s words this time.
Let me catch something.
Anything.
Please.
I raise my ears
I seize the words triumphantly!
I’m ecstatic!
I open my mind to look at the words,
some start to
slip
through
the
cracks.
Now they are a jumbled word pile on the floor
with all the other previous lost sentences.
I frantically clench my mind tight.
I manage to nab a few before I lose them.
Only four words.
Will this be enough?
I need time to solve the puzzle
but I notice the silence.
I glance up
My friend is
Looking at me expectantly.
I ran out of time.
So I utter…
“Aw man. That’s something.”
“I asked you a question,” they say.
I was caught.
My head hangs down in shame
the words and letters rustle at my feet
instead of my head
where they’re suppose to be.
I look up and admit
I missed everything they said.
My friend smiles,
takes my hand,
and offers these words
which I thankfully intercept this time.
“Let’s so somewhere more quiet.”
Scheme | Axxbc de f xgxc hx xi xxx jxi x x kxxbxxlx f mkkx d ix bgxgxx hj xe bxlf xxl m x k x xxxni xn Axbm x |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111 111 111011 01 1101 11011 111 01011010 111 111 101 111101001 1111 1011011 111 110 011010001 01101 110100101 111010010 111111 1011 111 1010111110001010 111101100 1111111 01001 011 0101 011 010010 0101010101 111110111 111111111 11110 10 1 1111 11010100 1010 1101111101 111 1 1 0 1 11101011101 110101001100 110001111 110110101111 1011 11101 11111010 1110010 111 111 10111 11111 1110 11110 11101011 111 111101 0101010111 01111 110111 111001 111011 111 111 01011 111000111 111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,758 |
Words | 336 |
Sentences | 42 |
Stanzas | 28 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 2, 1, 4, 2, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 8, 1, 4, 1, 2, 6, 2, 2, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 2, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 73 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 49 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 12 |
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Submitted on April 22, 2021
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 75 Views
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"Jumbled Words: A Poem About Central Auditory Processing Disorder" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/98010/jumbled-words%3A-a-poem-about-central-auditory-processing-disorder>.
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