Crooked Rein, Crooked Rein
When we were kids
we liked to spell
Mississippi out loud
for fun but we
never pronounced the S’s–
instead we said
crooked letter
all four times
the emphatic repetition
permanently re-branding the S
in my amygdala
though it never really clicked
until I realized
that if you add a
crooked letter in just
the right place
A man is as good as his word
becomes
A man is as good as his sword
