Words

By Carolyn Chilton Casas

Words give the tongue wings. Consider spangled, calabash, chiseled— their pipelines vibrating through your body. Say enigma, Osage, interwoven, cobalt, concentric, lodestone— they take you to an imaginative place far from the small space you inhabit. Think nouns—lullaby, spark kernel, Pismo; adjectives— secret, crisp, lucid, ethereal, verbs—preen and praise. Words can save you; they are rafts on a rolling sea. Putting them together is a marvel. Taste the word pozole— how it makes your mouth water, bursts of tones like shooting stars.

okalinichenko—stock.adobe.com

Words can save you; they are rafts on a rolling sea.

Not every poem jumps out of bed. with sunshine in its eyes Poems have travelled eons Yours and mine The last emperor’s My neighbor’s

Poems carry the weight Of their own weary feet

It’s okay now and then to find some summer shade A cool river flows The poem unpacks its words and falls asleep

Poems carry the weight of their own feet The poem unpacks its words and falls asleep

rolffimages—stock.adobe.com

Vandana Kumar is a Middle School French teacher in New Delhi, India. An educator with over 20 years of experience, she is also a French translator and recruitment consultant. Her poems have been published in various national and international journals and websites like ‘Mad Swirl’, Toronto based ‘Scarlet Leaf Review’, Philadelphia based ‘North of Oxford’, Saint Paul, Minnesota based ‘Grey Sparrow Journal’, UK based ‘Destiny Poets’, ‘Lothlorien Poetry Journal’, ‘Madras Courier’, Glomag etc. She has featured in anthologies like Houston, Texas based –‘Harbinger Asylum’, US based ‘Kali Project’ of Indie Blu(e) Publishing etc. She has been part of two projects of the World literature series on Post-modern voices and critical thought. She also writes articles on cinema that have appeared on websites and journals like ‘Just-cinema’, ‘Daily Eye’, ‘The Free Press Journal’, Boloji.com and The Artamour.