Ottoman
I consulted a dictionary,
thick as any gravestone,
the meaning of each word
only given in terms of other words
whose meanings must also be
looked up and so
around and around we go --
illusory, inclusive world of words
created by barking, braying,
warbling and lamenting,
cooing, crooning, flesh-throated human beings --
our wordiness letting no truth in edgewise.
Your love I find inexplicable, indefinable, unutterable --
Your love -- all You ever talked about (in Your silence).
Silence I dare not keep -- the truth of myself
might shine forth for all to see. I dare not shine.
I dare not embrace, so I go home
and write a poem about shining, embracing --
a pillow made of my dictionary,
an ottoman of my phonebook.
O child of God, words never tell the Truth
yet, they are the only means at your disposal
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