December 4
PERSONAL DICTIONARY
Everyone keeps a dictionary in his or her head. All the words lay on platters each with its
own flavor and meaning. There are
favorite menus, phrases, which form warmly in the mouth and hang sweetly for
the ear. Other vocabulary is exotic,
pungent, occasionally with a strong aftertaste or off-key ringing. Abundance brings a wealth of conversation and
keeps the cold of boredom at bay. Free
for the taking, words grow out of life lived.
When we have lived separately, even if only in our separate heads,
meanings vary and reference must be checked.
Blue sky is blue sky, but do you speak of azure, cerulean or
peacock? Life is so much show and tell. Drink the sunshine with your eyes and flow it
out to me with your words.
Write on scraps
then tape them together.
*
Night Spaces
When it gets dark it gets dark fast.
They say, night falls,
though sometimes it feels like it falls down.
What is little realized is there is a lifting
when the light has gone away, the sky raises
its roof and there is more air to breathe.
Long lost is the pink wisp
that heralded this night
and far ahead is the next wisp
of pink singing of the moon.
You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane
and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
