Words Copyright © 2009 Julie Sea-Borne

I love words.
Especially those, which sound like the thing they’re describing.
Take slug, that’s a good one.
Say it, and instantly there’s an image,
Of corpulent bodies, glistening with green sweat.
And night time garden raids, leaving hostas in tatters
And snot trails on paths.

Billowy.  Crisp, starched sheets snapping on the line,
Fighting the fumbling advances of an insistent breeze.
Cotton wool clouds, scurrying across a child’s paint box blue sky.
And yachts, sails braced, riding high to exotic destinations.
Splatter, splash, squish and squelch,
All do exactly as they say on the tin.
As do slippery, slimy, squat and splodge.

Jazz.  Feel it fizz over your tongue,
And you’re in a smoky underground club, where sophistication is served
With the cocktails and scotch on the rocks.
Words, wonderful, evocative, sensation arousing words.
Words have the power to reel in a memory, a thought, an emotion.
They can elevate and enervate, raising spirits and hopes to new heights.
But, equally, can defeat and destroy, crushing esteem into dusty nothingness.

Careless talk costs lives … and friendships … and marriages.
Stop and think before you say it, should be a compulsory maxim.
Yet we cannot, the words jostle and spill, fighting for life.
Our every sentence courting disaster, misunderstanding and dissent.
But words can also free the oppressed, acknowledge and aid those in need,
And can create images of such beauty, passion and wonder,
They burn, bright as starlight, throughout the centuries.

Words are what have raised man above the apes.
Civilisations foundation, yet, potentially, also the seeds of our own destruction.
Disagreement, contention, ugly words of intolerance, hate and greed,
Thrown like grenades by the leaders of men, to wound, incite and kill.
So others must soothe, pacify, negotiate and reason.
Using words as tools, consummate in their ability to twist and shape,
Words to make war or make peace with.  Ultimately, the choice is ours.