Syllables
for Sibyl

“Sibyl,” two syllables I cherish

I have a dish of colourful marbles

Henry Higgins filled Eliza Doolittle’s mouth
with marbles and instructed her to say:

“With blackest moss, the flower-pots
were thickly crusted, one and all”

spitting them into her hand,
she confessed, wide-eyed, “I swallowed one!”

“Don’t worry,” said Higgins, “I have plenty more!”

and on and on, repeating words
with her mouth full of marbles
until she’d perfected every syllable
of every word she uttered

to these Higgins added an evening gown and jewelry
and she was mistaken by one and all for a princess
when just weeks before she was but a flower girl
in So Ho Square dropping h’s everywhere
like withered petals


© Obediah Michael smith, 2006
4:37 p.m. 22/march/06