senses--fail

Patron of poets, pray bless me with words, fill me with rhyming and meaning and song. Hallow my tongue with a taste for fine verse. Give me a pen never ceasing to write. Patron of poets, the earth bore you up, that all who listened could hear when you spoke. Grant ears to hear me, though my lines are frail, maybe a heart to be touched by my hymn.                                         Amen.

"How are you today?" "Knobbly and hungry and full of flies." "Your caretaker informed me that you have not been well today." "'Not-well.' That's stupid, you know; 'not-well.' You always act like you're Mister-Missus Grammar, but you didn't use a proper, um, adjective. 'Not-well.'" "I never said that you were 'not-well'; I simply stated that you have, apparently not been well. Evidently, my sources were correct." "Well, of course I'm not well; I just found a new pain, and now I can't think about it, 'cause if I do, it'll break my skull open, or crawl out of my chest like the alien in Alien." "What was the 'pain'?" "I told you, I