Trigger Warning
I often find myself blocking on words—
on seldom-used words like whey and curds;
also on words with a more common use
like toothbrush, resilient, ambitious and noose;
Sometimes a synonym comes to my mind
and nobody knows that I’d been resigned
to stopping mid-sentence, deprived of speech
by a tip-of-the tongue word I’d failed to reach.
I wish I could capture her name on the-fly
when someone I recently met passes by.
Is her name Mary or Susan or Flo?
I swallow my pride and just say hello
I’d worry about my word block condition,
but all my friends seem to share this affliction.