Words

If words could hear,

What would they say?

If they could listen for a day

And decide what, in fact, they mean,

And be up front in the face of things.

Would they abandon their history?

Would they discredit etymology,

And stand up for themselves today?

Would they claim to be alive?

Or, as soon as spoken, good as dead?

Isn’t that what Nietzsche said?

Or because he said it, is that dead too,

And the other words, trying to be said too,

Are they worth saying?

Or like pets, should we neuter and spay them

Before we spray them?

But I think if a word could hear itself,

It would recoil at its own sound,

And turn the volume way past down,

And quietly slip away,

To a beach where topless is the norm,

And tequila is served, sans worm and warmed,

And maybe have nothing to say.

-jenn long