Friday, March 23, 2012

The Scintilla Project: Day Eight

The prompt: What are your simplest pleasures? Go beyond description and into showing the experience of each indulgence.

Words. 
Long ones, short ones, cliche and obscure
Modern, archaic, proper and all slang-like
I love them all
If I had my druthers, I'd piddle about with them all day; 
I'd pick 'em, spit 'em, drop 'em
I'd twist 'em, mince 'em, chop it up
I'd sing 'em, most loud, sweet cacophony
Oh, but occasionally
I eat 'em
I quote 'em, I give 'em, I take 'em
I live and breathe 'em 
I fear them 
"They can and will be used against you"...
They'll break you, maim you, cut you down to size;
A detail, minutiae, to an infinitesimal speck of who you thought you once were
They'll expose and exploit you
Pulchritude, power, horror, ugliness and shame
They are love and loathing, hope and despair
They incite riots and laughter and insight and change
They escape you, they fail you, but they come back...
Awestruck by love, writhing in pain, at desire's peak, on the brink of death
A final utterance, one last plea
For naught but their own posterity
Words.

9 comments:

T.Allen said...

Thanks, Anthony!

Beth Hikes said...

This is so utterly beautiful and clever all at the same time. I too love words on the page and the sound of words rolling through my lips. They're my favorite symbol and yet the thing I have struggled to communicate all my life! Thank you for celebrating them in such an incredible way :) xoxo Beth

Heather Scott Partington said...

"chop it up" -- nice!

love your diction in this poem. so cool. :)

Michelle V. said...

This is my favorite of all the Scintilla posts I've read so far. So damn smart and such a pleasure to read.

Anonymous said...

perfect.

FM said...

Love this... love, love, love. This would probably be great performed.

Relyn Lawson said...

This is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!!!!!!! Really, really, really wonderful!! I LOVE it!! Girlfriend, you have a gift for words.

Jason said...

I love words too, more than a little positive that they were my first and most powerful love. I love this post.

Jewelry Rockstar said...

The Brilliance of Tameka!

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