Who named Tic-Tacs, or first said Kit-Kat…?

I’m not gonna dilly-dally,

jibber-jabber or shilly-shally.

but who put knick-knacks in the chit-chat?

Only niff-naffs tittle-tattle,

but the sounds seem made to make you laugh,

or scoff—at flim-flam, rip-rap, riff-raff,

and other idle fiddle-faddle…

The sound’s a kind of aural grip-tape,

and though you might end up with whiplash,

and spoken mishmash cause a liprash

soon all's spic-and-span—and shipshape!

So here’s to all that doesn’t matter:

the truth that comes in dribs and drabs

but slips between our ribs and grabs

our hearts, and makes them pitter-patter.

Eric Colburn's poems have appeared in Appalachia, THINK Journal, Forgotten Groubd Regained, Blue Unicorn, and elsewhere. He holds degrees from MIT and Emerson College and lives with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, less than a mile from where he grew up. He rides his bicycle everywhere and teaches literature to teenagers.