Uh, Okay

In spoken, North American English,

There’s no sound more important than the schwa,

Which is about the blandest sound there is,

Itself the essence of a verbal pause.

All unstressed vowels devolve to that soft uh,

Exhalation of minimal effort.

Once upon a time, long decades ago,

A linguistic geographer, dead now,

Sat at the head of a long seminar

And said, delighted, Schwa! I love you, schwa!