a strange thing happened to me today

a strange thing happened to me today.

 

a crowd of words ran towards me—

a rare thing to occur

and unsure, i ran away from them

yet they chased me down the alley

down the treacherous road of forsaken ideas

past the rocks, hands poised in the sky,

perhaps expressing resignation of a reluctant pen

and in the debris of the confusion

prose beckoned me, a decibel lower than

the shrill of raucous, forced words

with a thin veneer of superficiality.

a  strange thing happened to me today.

torrents of elegant words rounded me up

it was at 3 a.m., a strange hour

when  brave dawn cold gained entry through the louvres

elbowing a reluctant thought and sat it

right in the middle of my page.

a strange thing happened to me today.

words conspiratorially whispered to me:

clear, crisp thoughts that could sparkle if ruffled;

words dancing, gyrating to the beat of my imagination;

words dressed with hyphenated asides, yet brief as a major-general's command;

unrestricted, unrestrained outstretched arms of words;

unafraid of the editor’s noose

words shouting—

“Go tell madam Few-Words-Matter that

the Norman Mailer Pressure Group resents her high-handedness;

we have a right to associate in any way we please

& picket across thousands of pages if we want!”

a  strange thing happened to me today.

my Muse came and said,

"Boy, grab your pen. 

we got some work to do!" 

c) Lorot Salem/ echoes of the hills 2016