Anfractuosity

« Ah—tchi: ou Rhume de cerveau »

An intricate path or process, as of the mind.

—Merriam-Webster

Sneezing, one's heart may skip, a moment's pause.

The vagus nerve is the most likely cause.

(It says it does this "just because.")

No need to fear that short-lived syncope,

—it's mere "anfractuosity."

Vagus means “wandering”—and also "vague."

(The only rhyme that leaps to mind is “plague”—

it hardly helps to say "The Hague"!)

Wandering sneezing now is seldom seen—

but in the past it might have been.

Since "tortuous anfractuosity"

reverberates pleonastically

the adjective is best let be

and not flung at the unaccustomed ear,

to which the Latin verb frangere,

"to break"—derivatives, "fracture," "fraction,"

"fragment," "fractal, ""frail," and so on—

rings like an overfreighted gong,

I shan't note it birthed "anfractuous," too—

with words there's always something new!

English was fledged a dialect of French,

it seems, when French was drunk on Roman dreams.

September 2, 2024