In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Sayings

Posted:

Reaching for words
is like searching the earth
for stones
and then shaping them
one after another
into a path.

 

 

Your words took my breath away.

They killed me with their song.

They made my womb turn over.

Sing to me again.

 

The words I must speak

will sentence me to death.

I believe this, not that,

and know that I shall burn for it.

 

My beloved spake and said unto me,

Rise up, my Love, my fair one, and come away.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over, and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

The time of the singing of birds is come,

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

 

You believe nothing

they screamed, through the scarves

that hid their faces.

In praise of God

whom your words besmirch

we are about to make nothing of you

in one short burst.

 

I demand

freedom of speech

I demand the right to say

whatever I like

and do to the truth

whatever suits my purposes

and defraud my neighbour

in whatever way pleases me

through my words

for my gain.

 

We made the bus bright red, he said

in glee. So the plebs would think

that they and we

belong on the same side.

Tee hee.

Fiddle-de-dee.

The People have Spoken

and We must Obey.

Tee hee.

 

Your words

have cut me to the quick

they have cleaved me

from crown to crotch.

Split in two

I cannot live more.

 

Lord, I am not worthy

that you should enter under my roof,

but only say the word

and my soul shall be healed.

 

On the last day, he said :

Tell my children that I lied

for their sakes.

I cheated on a people and a world

so that my own blood might flourish.

Though there be no world left

and the lie now rules,

my children will play in the sun

and I say

the People have Spoken,

I say, it is the People’s Will,

but I and my children know

that it is my will prevailed.

In casting my spell

I stole their world.

 

Your words touch me

with such truth and delicious penetration

that my womb turns over.

 

I can tell a lie

by the way my flesh

crawls on hearing it

and a pillar of salt

replaces my free spirit

and my proud city

crumbles in ruin.

 

Our words cleared the air between us.

Both of us could breathe now –

not just the one.

We ceased

choking on each other.

 

Your words poisoned the atmosphere.

Faces fell and then froze.

A bubble of foam

escaped between green lips.

 

Words can mean whatever you make of them.

They can play people like hooked fish.

You reel people in with words.

Then you gut them.

 

Words fail me. I am lost for words.

Lord, retrieve me. I fail of my being.

I am overborne. I cannot break free.

 

Send me word

when you can, if you will.

I live on word. No word

no heart left beating.

 

You have been killing me with your song

so sweetly that I could have wished

my dying could last forever.

 

We made the bus bright red, he said.

Tee hee.

Fiddle-de-dee.

The People have Spoken.

 

Lord, I am not worthy

that you should enter under my roof,

but only say the word

and my soul shall be healed.

 

                                                                                                Rogan Wolf, 26th August 2016