Slow Smoke/Words
WORDS
He never flinched, and never a muscle stirred;
Speechless he stood beneath the stinging whips
She laid upon him in each syllable
That crackled from her lips.
Speechless he stood beneath the stinging whips
She laid upon him in each syllable
That crackled from her lips.
Yet in his heart a river of anger rolled,
And swept his words into a groaning jam,
As when a torrent chokes a rushing stream
With logs across a dam.
And swept his words into a groaning jam,
As when a torrent chokes a rushing stream
With logs across a dam.
But when she flung at him the dynamite
Of epithet and insinuating doubt,
With a mighty moan the pent up tide gave way,
And the jam of words went out:
Of epithet and insinuating doubt,
With a mighty moan the pent up tide gave way,
And the jam of words went out:
Words cut by a madman's ax; words brittle with ice;
Words pointed, barbed with sleet and torn of branch;
Words that cascaded, ricocheted, and split,
Fell in an avalanche.
Words pointed, barbed with sleet and torn of branch;
Words that cascaded, ricocheted, and split,
Fell in an avalanche.
Down with the flood of wrath they pitched and plunged,
Until at last there came the utter peace
That settles on a stream when logs go out,
And flood-tides find release.
Until at last there came the utter peace
That settles on a stream when logs go out,
And flood-tides find release.