I Thought To Write a Poem On a Gristmill

I thought to write a poem on a gristmill. First I googled it, having never really heard that term before. The “grist” part had conjured up for me images of grisly scenes like in a horror movie in which all that remained of dead bodies was the ghastly gristle of victims killed most gruesomely, the parts of them ground up inside a mill! But no, a gristmill is nothing so sinister as that! “Grist” is just another word for grain (the grain for grinding into flour). A gristmill, therefore, is the name for the machine or for the building where the gristing is performed! Strange that I’d only heard it in my region called a mill. If the word “mill” denotes the place for the grinding, isn’t it redunant to add a word which also is as repugnant as the word “grist” seems to be? Or maybe it’s only I that find the word so ugly - ugly like the words gargle, gagging, maggots or mucus. Funny to think that since my ancestors likely worked in gristmills, my maiden name might have been “Gristmiller” and not Miller. I thought to write a poem on a gristmill, but ended up with this! June 2, 2018 for The Gristmill Poetry Contest of Craig Cornish