Hands to keys
Fingers to screen
Pen to page
Mouth to mic
Any way you can
Get your words out.
Left inside the pink folds
They eventually die out
Or change with time and life
Worn smooth like lake rocks
Their unique sharp edges muted.
These words have teeth
But if not cared for
They will rot
They will grow holes
Be rendered useless
They will be lost.
Let them be written
Tapped out
Listened to
Spoken.
Some days your hand,
Gripping your pen
Will hover over the ominous blank page
Puzzling over what might be worth the ink
But it’s all worth something
To someone.
Like the fleeing majesty of Fall
That I take for granted
Not everyone knows how
These green landscapes
Transform themselves to rainbows
Or the way the carefully planted corn stalks ripple beside you
As you fly down sleepy county roads
Or the lovely sound of rain
Against the treetops.
These words are soft
They taste like warm apple cider
A sour cream donut on the side.
They feel like a dog sleeping on your feet
A warm hand on the back of my neck.
They sound like
A content sigh
A cat purring
The heat flowing up through the vent.
These words I let roll around my brain
For days
I taste them on my tongue for a while
Like butterscotch hard candy.
These words smell like
Her perfume
His pipe tobacco
Home.
They are soft words
But they have my pen flowing across this page.
They have me started.
Baby food.
The teeth are there
I just need to learn to use them, again.
Sharpen them.
If I don’t write
I can’t call myself
A writer.
And if I’m not a writer
What am I?
Sure…
A mother
A daughter
A sister
A lover
A friend
Worker bee
Woman.
But if you don’t do
The only thing
You’ve really wanted to do
Since you were first handed a crayon
And gripped it hard
Pushing it against the ring finger
Of your right hand
Until you wore that spot hard and smooth
(The way you still grip your pen,
The way I’m gripping it right now)
And laying down meaningless scribbles
With lots of loops and tails,
If you don’t write
You’re a fraud.
You’re cheating yourself
You’re pretending you’re someone else.
Hands to keys
Fingers to screen
Pen to page
Mouth to mic
Any way you can
Get your words out.
Love this one! I wish you much success!
LikeLike
Thank you, Debi!
LikeLike