As I sat at the computer reading the Poem for the Day,

I thought about how it is said that poetry is to be read

aloud. The only reason I thought this is that I couldn’t

hear the words being spoken to me through the crunch

of the granola I was chewing, which I had put on a small

bowl of plain Greek yogurt to sweeten the sourness. I

was eating yogurt because I read on-line that it was good

if you have a fever blister, which I have but which is now

about gone. I don’t know if the yogurt helped, but I

am pretty sure the licorice oil and an over-the-counter

ointment shortened the unpleasant duration. I stopped

chewing and re-read the poem. The words sounded to

me like the poet must have had crunchy peanut butter in

her mouth. I stopped reading the poem and read her bio-

graphy only to discover she was known for her “clarity of

meaning.” Well, I wondered what was wrong with me so

I read another poem by her and this time I thought, for

sure, she had stolen my granola.