Emetophobia

the fear of vomit or vomiting

Collins Dictionary

 

You have set about to write something, something not necessarily necessary. Unbaked store-bought pizza tastes inextricably nasty. You think you might become sick later. Thank Heaven you are not emetophobic. Your nose runs like a trickling Japanese ‘Benjo’ creek polluted by urine, all the while mucus in your throat is persistently combative. 

 

Why is ‘Hawk-Tuah’ girl garnering so much public attention and notoriety? Can’t you use for an aftertaste some butter pecan ice cream? Nah! You might spill some ice cream onto this lineless white writing paper. Hawk Tuah girl isn’t the only one who can ‘haw-tuah’. You know you are using her name and the term as word play. You know what you are entertaining with your comical musing.

 

You are an author of limited means and note. More your books are given away as marketing strategy than sold. Recently, President Trump fired Library of Congress chief, Carla Hayden, a black woman, someone you wonder if she’s related to the late great Negro poet Robert Hayden. Far be it from you to suggest it, but, now that you have, so be it. Besides, Robert Hayden was a writer of English words, just like you. You have set about to write something, something not necessarily necessary. 

 

This spring day does not inspire you from a writer’s perspective. Trouble follows you instead. Retiring is your wife. This is a worst-case scenario. She is not a writer. However, she is an overbearing communicator. Your wife wants to talk way too much. 

 

For you a Negro poet, concentration is essential regarding the subtleties of ‘neighborhood,’ a place Negroes call “the Hood.” In hood vernacular, and for English speaking and writing, ‘neighborhood’ is old English. ‘Neighborhood’ is for white folk usage while ‘hood’ is for Negro community and culture. The Hood represents cultural appropriation. It has far less to do with ethnicity, but more aptly the social construct and identity given usage in black slang vernacular.

 

Hood life has merit. Out of it comes new music, dance, linguistics, familial relationships, and many societal success stories and tragedies. Greeks have no corner on tragedy. The Hood has its own iconic gods made up of mortals like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and a host of other notables from dispensations of American history. You are not impoverished nor wealthy. You are an author of limited means and note. You have set about to write something, something not necessarily necessary. You don’t feel emetophobic yet, but hawk tuah? Yeah.

 

© emmett wheatfall