Mrs. Pickle Peppers Peter Piper Problem

To hear is to know

Mrs. Pickle Peppers and her Peter Piper problem

 

Mrs. Pickle Pepper

loved the word

she liked them slow

she liked them clear.

 

Pete Piper

moved fast

always packing in

the words he used

his love of the word

was to cram

slam and run

which always left

Mrs. Pickle Pepper

bemused.

 

Try as they might

the Pickle Peppers

they couldn't agree

what were the meanings

of each others words.

 

"I don't understand"

Mrs. Pickle Pepper would say

you speak too fast

"I don't understand"

Mr. Pickle Pepper would say

your words move too slow.

 

The Pickle Pepper

problem

you see

was that how many words

the Pickle Peppers used

made it so the other couldn't

hear, or so they believed.

 

To ease Mrs. Pickle Peppers

Peter Piper problem

they decided that

to enact a noble idea

to pick each others words

and clearly hear

they would have to agree

to use only

the number of words

required to exact

the meaning.

 

Peter spoke slower

and Mrs. Pickle Pepper

sped up her speech

yet they still

could not understand.

 

Peters consternation

moved him to his favorite

old tree.

As he sat and watched

he noticed around him

that all things seemed

to communicate,

to understand the other.

 

How was it that

birds and rabbits,

insects and tortoise

all could understand

each others speech

and in that moment

he understood.

 

To understand is to hear.

The amount of words used

has no bearing

if the listener

cannot hear

he could speak as fast

as he liked

and Mrs. Pickle Pepper

just as slow

and if they listened

as intently

as the animals of the forest

they could finally communicate.

 

He ran home as fast as he could

he explained to Mrs Pickle Pepper

what he garnered under the old tree.

 

They began to listen,

to focus,

to not worry about the number of words

but only that the other had heard them

and they lived happily ever after.