Tacit Speech

This is a poem about me and how I got the way I am today.

Tacit Speech

If I could say it, I would,
the reason why I am
the way I am —
short.
I can say this much:
It could be turnicates, or ticks,
or time, or lack of a ticking, tickling,
or maybe too many turnpikes, or turnovers,
or simply the turning of the terra,
or the turnips torn by the turning.
I will tell anybody who doesn’t know
about the turtles in the sand
and how I always come up
short,
but no more than that.