Stringing letters together with the English language in mind sometimes creates multiple pathways. Thus r o u n d a b o u t can be variously agglutinated to Ro und Abou T or Round Ab Out or R ou NDA B ou T, etc. And l a v a l a m p may become Lava Lamp or Lav Al Amp or or Laval AMP, and so on. Our thoughts might be otherwise diverted if we’d ever heard the band Yes sing :Roundabout,” or if we’re old enough to remember a lava lamp in a coffeehouse.

Any or all of this, or something else, might modify the flavor of those two strings of words. But if you SEE a Lava Lamp, or you are DRIVING THROUGH a Roundabout, your experience becomes not strings of letters but tangibility.

r o u n d a b o u t

reminders like the tick and flea
obsess us with the honeyed b
upend the lava lamp and goo
now set the font in bold urdu
deliver us, o passe-partout