What Words Do
By John Herlihy

Words stir subtle minds to invent,
They create worlds people resent.
Words wear thin cloaks in disguise,
They hide under a separate guise.
Words carry their colored balloons,
Sparkling reds and subtle maroons.
Words sustain life’s human quest,
During life, in death, beyond death.
Words ride high waves in the sea,
They paint pictures we want to see.
Words have power to stir imagination,
Turning the leaves in life’s pagination.

Words take us on singular pathways,
That often lead into a lonely maze.
Words unravel from start to end,
They differ from enemy and friend.
Words have emotions like icicles,
They chill hearts as stone pebbles.
Words wrap us in an emotive web,
Helplessly caught in a trap instead.
Words tell a multitude of nasty lies,
That make each of us furtive spies.
Words freely comfort us and adorn,
Sometimes they resort to idle scorn.

Words be as they are, yours to hear,
Listen as they sound and come near.