wordless

How can one
Transform twenty six

Into
A language
That describes
The emotions of lovers
Lying entwined, spent?

The haunting emptiness of
Cracked river beds that once
Teemed with life but now
Cry for attention, silently?

A word that describes
Swollen bellies of children
That cannot differentiate
The hunger in their stomachs
From the anger in their hearts or
The sadness in their souls?

The beauty of an untouched sky
That sits atop snow-capped mountains,
Beckoning, teasing one’s heart
To soar?

Into the gut-piercing cries
Of a woman in rape,
Pinned down by rabid beings,
Of the emptiness in her faith,
And the despair in her hope?

Into a language that describes the
Laughter in a new-born’s eyes?

Into
The calm that emanates
From the heart
When lost in the world
Of one’s god?

Woefully inadequate,
These twenty-six
Within which we must
Bare the many emotions of life.