119. IPA vs IPA

maybe IPA | can save us

though difficult to imagine how
the International Phonetic Alphabet
is conceptually easy | I will admit
yet many don’t | know even what
a glottal stop is | so knowing that ʔ
represents the glottal stop | only
makes them wonder | what question
the glottal stop | asks or
why the IPA symbol | for the glottal stop
seems to be nothing | more than
a question mark | robbed of its underdot
if only the IPA | were as simple as beer
a small liquor | not given to
the intensity of whiskey | or those other
alcohols | colorless as water
but born to burn | against the tongue
even if their sweet | ministrations
for our love | succeed
with little more than a | sip

think in the | thought of a
word of a | drink
what the message | of that liquid
is | how
the tongue | arranges its sense
of its flavors | acceptable
(eventually desirable) | against the
receptors | of that same tongue
consider how | you have
come to consider | this small
drink of water | malts | grain
and hops | a pleasure enough
for its consistency | in a single form
its variety | in the abundance
of forms it takes | shapeshifter
tongueshifter | how it
teaches you | to understand
it | but only with time and
effort | sip by sip

what is | an ale
besides an | archives
of scent and flavor | the weight and
body of a liquid | on the tongue
data for the mind | to
construe | and reconstrue
a set of | facts
in contention | not not
a drink of meaning | that yet
degrades | and falls into
its own senescence | taking
the form | of our doddering
selves | given to reminiscences
of our lives | but only of those stories
that never happened | wobbly as well
(so it is fortunate | we both
remain distant from this possible | fate)
and if we wander into | such a place
we can always | restore ourselves with
a few sips of an ale | the memory of a future ʔ