Oxydol

I am five
Asking my
Mother after
Watching a TV
Commercial if she
Used Oxydol in our new
Washing machine with two
Rollers for squeezing laundry
And kid’s fingers making a terror
Of wash day but my sisters are
Laughing themselves silly over
My mispronunciations and my
Stuttering pretensions at five
Though my sister Penny did
Cure me of stuttering by
Telling me that smart
Kids stutter when
Ideas come into
Their heads a
Bit too fast
For their
Mouth
To
Say
Which
Gives me
Confidence
And I stop my
Stuttering but not
My pretending to smoke
A pipe while discoursing on
Greek mythology by my second
Time in the second grade
Resulting in my interest
In history allowing me
To bore the hell out
Of my siblings as
I became a boor
By eight and a
Graduate
Student
By 23
So,
Blame
Penelope ...
Sis, not Ulysses…