Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fits and Starts

If there were words
that shattered
locks and chains
or penetrated
any earthly gloom,
the poets
and the scientists
would vie
to isolate them
in a petri dish -
or press them
in a new anthology.

If there were words
that killed
bacteria
or rendered
any vicious growth
benign,
Poetry and science
would combine
that much more quickly,
and to antiquate
both surgery
and rosy platitudes.

If words were seeds
robust enough
to grow
on any field,
in any earthly clime -
if they were sown
wherever hunger lived,
in time to fill
each empty belly,
we
would scorn to ask
the planter's pedigree.

Words educate
the body, mind,
and soul -
completely,
or in subtle
fits and starts.

Words will root out
remedies enough
to vanquish
misery,
and forestall
death -

or help us
to wrest
victories
from
both.

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