Words are things (Poem)

April is National Poetry Month and my friend Phyllis gave me a prompt.

“The Power of Words.”

Here’s my Poem

 

(photo by Kristina Flour)

Words are things

You can’t heft them, hold them

Turn it in your hands

You can’t wrap your body up in them

Or make love to them

But they touch just the same

 

Words are things

Like people they can heal and they can hurt

Steal, pillage, and murder

Raise a nation, raise a family, or raise the devil himself

 

Words are things

Like bullets out of a gun they can tear flesh

Like water they can sooth a parched soul

Like terror they can stalk the night

Or like starlight they can guide our way home

 

In the beginning…

Per ancient text

It wasn’t people, or places, or things that arrived first

In the beginning was the Word

And the word was with God

And the word was God

 

Words are things

And their power is infinite

Though finite beings whip them past their teeth

Without thought, without so much as moment’s

Hesitation.