"Ode to Mouth," by Hans Ostrom, Lyrics, and Delilah Merman, vocals

O, Mouth

 an ode, in abc... form

O, mouth,
Abyss of appetite,
  Bureau of belching,
Cannon of cursing,
  Dungeon of tongue,
Emitic exit,
  Fanatic of food.

O mouth,
  Groom of gluttony,
Hall of hiccups,
  Inventor of intrigue,
Joker and jester,
  Knight of bite,
Lover of lick and kiss.

O mouth,
  Muse of mucous,
Nobleman of No,
  Obnoxious Opinionator,
Penthouse of Prevarication,
  Quarrelsome quipster,
Rude rogue of rebuke,
  Soothing sayer.

Tabernacle of teeth,
  Union of utterance,
Vector of vocabulary,
  Wagon of waggery,
Xanadu of flu,
  Yodeler and yeller,
Zone of zest, O, mouth.

hans ostrom 2024

Chew Your Words

Risible syllables, oracular spectacles,
and vivid vineyard spectra: the mouth
is mouthing words like lozenges today.

The tongue's a dancing master that
undulates the floor, making phonemes
and morphemes stagger in chaography,

salubriously salivaed. Enjoy your words
today, my friends who are strangers,
inveterate re-arrangers.  Roll them

around, chew 'em up, wad them in a cheek,
let them drool out then suck them back.
Open your mouth and take a peek:

nothing there but air, ivory, red-pink
cave-walls, and that writhing slug
of a mischievous tongue:

connoisseur, conductor, meaning-
                                           making muscle.


hans ostrom 2016