The Alphabet

Words . . .
shout and speak,
sing and suggest,
they reflect and ruminate,
romance and regale,
they meditate and memorize,
they mumble and mortify,
Present . . .
Prolonged . . .
Deafening

Voices . . .
speak at you and to you,
around you and through you,
with you and without you,
among you and about you,
behind you and before you,
be for you and against you,
Upward?
Downward?
Followthroughward?

Words . . .
Shapes + and SiZeS
Sounds #@* and syll'a'bles
Stop.ping and start. . .ing
Sinking ^and surfing <<< >>>>staying (:)
Sailing ~ and sweeping ~
Swaying and semanticizing
Sweet . . .
Sour . . .
Sugary . . .

Words . . .
Poets and prophets,
penpals and protagonoists,
Writers and recorders,
Editors and edifiers,
Capturing, considering, coaxing,
Criticizing, criminalizing, condemning,
Building . . .
Breaking . . .
Boastful . . .

Words . . .
a simple thought,
an emotion,
Gratitude,
the right word, ,
the rime, the rhythm,
the sonorous segregated
Babble .
Chatter . . .
Cackle . . .

Words . . .
renounced, reiterated, recoiled
in stanzas and on shelves,
in volumns of verses of vernacular,
on bookshelves and in bibliographies,
in records and recordings,
on lips and in libraries
on documents and in dialog.
Felt . . .
Heard . . .
Moved. . .

Words . . .
I sit. I write.
A card. A note. A sentiment. An expression.
"Words are all I have?"
Thank you?
From my heart . . . A lump in my throat . . .
Never enough paper or ink . . .
Words . . .
Words . . .
Words . . .

The Separation

Unconscious and conscious breaths. . .
Millions of them, maybe more, maybe less,
Short rhythmic, pulsating motions,
In and out, In and out, In and out . . .
Day in and day out,
Month in and month out,
Year in and year out . . . a lifetime of breaths.

The first breath of life,
Who can remember?
Born by breathing air,
Categorized and shelfed . . . . alive.

A life of breaths
Who can remember?
A continual pattern of barely noticeable puffs,
At breakfasts, luches and dinners,
The public and private,
The happy, the sad.
The good and the bad . . . the breaths of life.
Who can remember?

Born into the world by breathing,
Air, chemicals, filling the lungs with life,
Born into the world by a heartbeat,
Blood, chemicals, filling the veins-the mind and body
The life before the breath,
What is breath?

Born into the world by breath . . .
Born out of this world by breath or lack thereof?
A death by lack of heart or lack of breath?
Breathless, no more breaths, no where, no more air.
Unless . . .