Read.
Read aloud the poem.
You’re allowed to read the poem, you.
Call these words by their names,
Call and These and Words and By and
Their Names
Words who have personalities
Who have thoughts of their own
Who dream of being someone different than
Who they are.
Sky dreams of being more than blue and clouds
Even more than being dark, speckled with starlight
Sky dreams of being trees and grass and ground
And Ground dreams of being inside
Inside a cupboard
Inside a glass jar
Filled with salt
Just one little grain of salt
The word, Ground, dreams of being
Spend some time around all these words and you see their complications
It can be
Harder
Than you imagine it should be to be a word that spends time with other words
Like And
Who spends all her time squished between friends who don’t care that she’s there
She’s there. She’s there and she’s here, the cheese and lettuce and tomato
On your sentence sandwich
Think of these words
Think of the words
Wish us well
Because we are what a word’s
Worth