It Escapes Me

I feel it writhing

on my tongue

begging to be spoken,

but toothless

I remain,

vocabulary broken.

What's the fucking word?

I know it

see it

taste it.

Slippery? Slithering?

Nope, stillborn within me.

Slather, was that it?

Or maybe slatternly?

What is

that

fucking word?

Slovenly, splattering, 

sinfully, smattering?

Why does this happen?

Wait, was it "shattering"?

Curses, it wasn't.

Right brain, I could crush you!

Demolish! destroy! I surely distrust you.

Sliver or slaver, shiver or shaver?

Not stricture, not structure,

nor striver, nor strumpet.

Google can't help

without more to go on.

Where's the damn Webster's?

At least then I can thumb it.

Curses again!

Confounded! Can't find it!

Those meddling kids

have carried

it off.

Why can't I convey

my shit's not for play?

A gleam! Ho, I see it!

Breaking the blockage,

is this

the word

that's holding

me hostage?

Stoppage?

Ah, no, that's not it!

You poor little twit,

you'll

never

think of that word.

My tongue how it taunts me,

The word how it haunts me.

I'll never

be free

of the pain.

Marveling at it,

snarling at it,

I look at my tongue

in the mirror.

Marshaling courage,

mustering gall,

perhaps brute force

can make

my mind

clearer.

One last run at the wall,

I give it my all.

Deep breath,

then out with the spew.

Stuttering, strenuous,

strapping, stochastic,

startling, starkly, 

sprightly, spumoni,

(Really? That last one is tenuous.)

stentorian, shimmering,

screechingly, simmering,

summoning, shuddering,

splat, (What? That's just bologna.)

squeamish, staccato,

stelliform, stigmatic,

strident, shambolic,

(my ego, now sorely is suffering)

scotoma, scribacious,

scurrilous, spacious.

salubrious, sententious,

Stop! It's all so demonic!

Stereophonic?

Alas! No effect.

I'm afraid

to admit

that this word has

beaten me soundly.

Hmm, how peculiar?

A sound I

now hear

buzzing my ear

bringing good cheer

my Muse has come near

tongue have no fear

the word will eclipse

the froth at my lips,

now, right at the tip...

Dear reader of mine,

the suspense 

you must feel

in the pit

of your stomach.

Will I reveal

the word

I have sought?

Relax dear friend,

it was slummock.