Misnomers

Our language abounds with –

and we are bound by –

mis-named things.

Beyond the obvious oxymorons

(those jumbo shrimp are pretty ugly),

and the shape-shifter words

(the rivals of our watch, Horatio?),

our language binds us

with phrases and names

too confusing to investigate.

Like the area just above the elbow

that is neither bone nor funny,

but tendon and tender.

Was Noah –

that Web-ster that he was,

weaving meaning to capture identity

in his beautiful language orb –

was he aware as he named our words,

two-by-two,

of the confusion this would create?

Centuries of mothers explaining

to their children, crying after a bump:

No, honey, not funny “ha-ha,” but

Different, perplexing, suspicious, deceptive, odd.

Is he to blame,

that etymologist who penned

our language to the page?

Or did some other titular person

(a doctor, perhaps?)

assign that particular label?

If the naming of body parts

is up for grabs,

I’d like to add a few.

And if tendons can be

labeled “bones,”

I have a few more, too.

For the funny one that won’t

make you laugh is connected to

the weighty one that holds this pen.

It is small

yet powerful in the telling.