Poetry Mixtape 26: Misnomers

Have you ever heard a word/name for something and felt it was all wrong? Misleading, even? Or felt that way about the title of a poem?  Today’s inspiration will come from one my favorite Death Cab for Cutie songs, “Title and Registration.”

The glove compartment isn’t accurately named

And everybody knows it.

So I’m proposing a swift orderly change.

‘Cause behind its door there’s nothing to keep my fingers warm

And all I find are souvenirs from better times

Before the gleam of your taillights fading east

To find yourself a better life.

I was searching for some legal document

As the rain beat down on the hood

When I stumbled upon pictures I tried to forget

And that’s how this idea was drilled into my head

‘Cause it’s too important

To stay the way it’s been

There’s no blame for how our love did slowly fade

And now that it’s gone it’s like it wasn’t there at all

And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide

Lying awake at night

*

It’s a beautiful little song, with a lilting melody, but I love the idea of the lyric – that unearthing a painful memory could lead to a universal call to rename the glove compartment. This is a jump in thought that certainly would not have occurred to me.

If you want to write:

1. Choose something that you think has been misnamed. (Could even be a person!) Write a little poem about the event that led you to this decision. The Wikipedia post about the word “misnomer” may give you some ideas.

OR

2. If that idea is not resonating with you, use one of the following lines from other DCFC songs to spark a poem:

• “I wish the world was flat like the old days/and we could travel just by folding a map” (from “The New Year”)
• “you’re the only song I want to hear/a melody softly soaring through my atmosphere”  (from “Soul Meets Body”)
• “with my feet on the dash/the world doesn’t matter” (from “Passenger Seat”)

About these ads