Chasing Words

Chasing words from room to room, they hide in every nook.

They hide behind the picture frames, and disappear in books.

They refuse to let me write them down.

They slip through every thought.

They slip through cracks and under doors

The go where they should not.

I hide behind the curtains with my word processor waiting.

I put out bait and wait for them, these words are so frustrating.

They wait until I'm sleeping.

They move about in space.

They rearrange in magazines,

They will not stay in place.

I send letters to their union using phrases clipped from pages.

I shout at them and plead with them and promise better wages.

They confuse my muse with dissidence.

They write a constitution.

They insist they cannot work with me,

They threaten revolution .

Days of empty pages fill my soul with great despair.

I look in every room and search my heart, they are not there.

They seem to have abandoned me.

They have no dedication.

They left no question marks to see,

They left no exclamation!

I watch the page before me filled with emptiness and silence.

I ask myself, how can I face the days without their guidance?

They must forgive my trespasses

And see that I have changed.

They must feel I believe in them,

They must not feel so strained.

I raise my arms toward heaven and I shout up to the ceiling,

I promise I will chose you well, with confidence and feeling!

They begin to walk across the page

My heart is filled with gladness.

They fill my mind with paragraphs

And draw me back into their madness.

Chasing words from room to room, they hide in every nook.

They hide behind the picture frames and disappear in books.

They call for me to follow them.

They lead me to temptation.

They take me on the journey,

They have become my soul salvation

©2010 A.W.Whitford