There are No Words Swimming Naked

 

There are words separate and lonely,

angry at someone somewhere

who doesn't send letters.

There are words that break down,

shut off, there are words that splinter,

disintegrate, that turn to black powder on the carpet.

There are words that hurt so much

that you want to use words

to make someone else hurt that badly too.

There are words that betray a secret

you never knew you carried.

There are words that make someone curl

into fetal position, that start a war,

that make entire cities crumble into sand.

There are words pouring out of the newspaper,

the radio, the television, pouring into your aching

traffic-jammed body, words all over you.

 

 

There are no words swimming naked

across the dark lake in summer.

There are no words looking up from under goosedown

at a splash of stars over the midnight grove.

There are no words flying over the wild river

which cuts blue canyon land.

There are no words embracing on the elevator

in the last moment before the doors open.

There are no words casting into the rough ocean

in search of darting blues.

There are no words painting indigo arcs and swirls

across canvas with fluid brush strokes.

There are no words drumming syncopated rhythms

in time with the other musicians to form

one pulsing body of sound.

There are no words where I want to go.

 

 

                        --Karen Braucher

                        from Sending Messages Over Inconceivable Distances (copyright 2000),

                        first published in the journal Puerto del Sol

 

 

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