Ask any experienced writer
and they will tell you that words
are not just marks made on a screen,
or on paper with an implement.
Seeing their potential for propaganda
Kipling said 'words are the most powerful
drugs known to man', though what counts
as 'a drug' has changed since his times.
William Burroughs, a writer of a later hue
who knew quite a lot about drugs said
'Language is a virus from outer space.'.
He appeared on television quite often
speaking his scabrous dry humour
with his uniquely cracked accent,
where he sounded like he meant it.
And when Samuel Beckett said
'words are all we have' did he admit
to himself how ill-used many of them were?
The words of those without honour
get written on the walls of tenement halls
and in subways before they lapse into silence,
after the manner of Martin Luther who said
'The fewer the words the better the prayer.'.
The last words for today are to quote
dyslexic actor and author Henry Winkler,
'I live by two words: tenacity and gratitude'
as we all might when words confuse us.
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