Ode on Departed Slang
Are you still there, bitchin—word I used in Hawai’ito describe a wave, a friend’s hair, my pink bikini—bogart, book, banzai, boss, stoked, psyched, all the surfing slangthat faded when I moved to Dixie, the land of dang,Christ all mighty, Jesus bird dog, mash, ornery, lick,as in you don’t have a lick of sense, the ugly stickdames were hit with, all the words that have been lostin the great lingo sea, words I loved or used then tossedeither because their time had passed or I had moved onto another realm, as when my hippie world was goneflip out, far out, freak (as in he’s a freak—a good thing)became a geek with horns or someone who was singingGreat Balls of Fire naked in the courtyard of the world,but nothing…
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The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, May/June 2020