I’m not much of a deipnosophist—
I sit and listen to better table-talkers
I might look lost in a funk,
but I’m just watching the board
tracking every conversational
checkmate and zugzwang
not antisocial, nor a solivagant,
just solving puzzles with pizzazz—
the crossword’s clues feeding me
new words to keep me quiet-busy
some might call it sniffishness
but they’d be wrong
I’ll speak my mind one-on-one
it's only in a crowd I clam up—
the tiny bones in my ear vibrating
to a silent ululation
