'You're the most ept, ert, choate and dolent person I know - <br />how do you manage it? ' <br /> <br />'Excuse me...? ? ' <br /> <br />Words are fun. <br />If your child's school report <br />declared him or her <br />'inept, inert, inchoate, and indolent' <br />you'd have a fairly clear picture <br />of how things are; <br />the negatives survive, <br />as more useful <br />(ah, sad reflection...) <br /> <br />and then there are the words <br />that have reversed their meanings <br />by some really interesting <br />but alas never yet charted <br />human failing: <br />'nice' once meant stupid and ignorant; <br />'silly' once meant blissful... <br /> <br />But today I'm savouring 'disgruntled': <br /> <br />that is, dissatisfied, and angry with it; <br />a state not unknown <br />to a consumer society; <br />so are you gruntled today - <br />satisfied and happy? <br /> <br />but it's not quite as easy as that: <br />if you're gruntled, then officially you're <br />'uttering little grunts'... <br /> <br />would that be while DIYing <br />somewhere back of the sink, <br />or pigging out so fast you can hardly <br />make time to breathe, <br />or perhaps being, uh, <br />sexually favoured? <br /> <br />Words are fun <br />especially for poets - <br />Shakespeare made up more than anyone <br />just like that <br />without some egghead like Bacon (aha!) or Jonson <br />looking over his shoulder and saying <br />you can't say that <br />they won't know what you mean <br />in the low-price seats... <br /> <br />Words are fun; <br />give them a good shake of the kaleidoscope <br />and they just might play nose-to-tail <br />and make a poem <br /> <br />though not today it seems<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/have-a-good-gruntle/
