Just Words

All I need?

I guess when it boils down to it,

The bare bones, when everything else is stripped away

Are just... Words.

The words that both anchor me

And set me free

Without the words,

I’d be swallowed up, drowned in ineffability

Because without the words,

How could I ever say

Things like “I love you” and “it’ll be okay”?

It would be a world of chaos –

Of pent up expressions, of confusion and loss

Everything would be all bent up inside

Like so many trapped buzzing, beating butterflies

Until I, a crucible, would collapse, cease to exist,

Like those stars that burn so bright that even the universe

Just can’t take them anymore,

And they crumple in on themselves

In the world’s greatest lightshow

But not even that – this would be quieter, subtler

A silent, a wordless, combustion.

At this point, I wouldn't even need a tongue

Because what’s a tongue without words?

Simply a slimy, slippery mouth-dwelling serpent

Lolling and flapping uselessly

Because without words, where is meaning?

And what is man without meaning, anyway?