Daddy what means with A sonnet

by Ben Gallagher

I say Apple means with A what about
this letter? That letter G daddy. It means with Grandma
you haven’t seen in a year
there are no words that take the place of a hand

Only so many ways to explain the unexplainable
before your words taste like lies
She wants to figure out how language works
I keep saying I don’t know I don’t know

This is a picture of sweet fruit
make the shape of a tent with a line across
remember the woman who held us both as babies
the shape of an unfinished circle with a small line inside

The shape the feeling the meaning
meaning feeling shape, I won’t ever know

— from Juniper Volume 5, Issue 1