Grass lights. St David's Park, Hobart. June 2012. No matter how many times I try, and despite the fact that I am aware of the challenge of it, I always manage to spell the word 'buerocracy' 'beauruocracy' 'beareuocracy' 'bureaucracy' incorrectly. Spelling , Margaret Atwood My daughter plays on the floor with plastic letters, red, blue & hard yellow, learning how to spell, spelling, how to make spells. * I wonder how many women denied themselves daughters, closed themselves in rooms, drew the curtains so they could mainline words. * A child is not a poem, a poem is not a child. There is no either / or. However. * I return to the story of the woman caught in the war & in labour, her thighs tied together by the enemy so she could not give birth. Ancestress: the burning witch, her mouth covered by leather to strangle words. A word after a word after a word is power. * At the point where language fa...