========================================== return to TOC for issue: Fall '09
The sound of Z is jagged-angry.
Its very shape is sharp, its corners cutting,
like “buzz” (as in saw),
or “jazz” (cool or hot),
or “fizz” (excited, effervescent).
Too much fizz can make you buzzed (or at least jazzed).
Z resounds around your lips
and down into your diaphragm,
jarring you awake, like minute pneumatic drills.
No smoothness here.
No, Z zig-zags,
Z snores, forces tortured air out
through your nose and mouth,
awakening your neighbours.
I say “Zed” and you say “Zee”
I’m from North of the 49th, you see.
Why say “Zed”? Don’t know, don’t care.
Don’t take it personally.
The name Tariq Azziz
is like a million angry bumble bees,
a swarm of surly sounds
like an agitated wasp
trapped inside a jar.
