do not betray the words - Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

do not betray the words

do not take them in your hands
and twist them like air balloons

creating wiener dogs and flowers
and imaginary crowns

do not stretch them so thin
that their skins breaks

everything evaporated
torn casings limp on the ground

do not take the words
and make them trophies

line them up on your mantle
shiny and golden and clean

do not make them objects in your
collection trussed in traces of dust

do not play the words

dunk them in the deep end of the pool
with no breath, no air

do not tell the words that you’re coming back
when you know that you’re not

do not pat them on the shoulder
while laughing to your friends about them

the words are simple enough
neutral enough plain enough

the words are atoms of sound

black scratches bent into circuits

they catch your electricity

they await your satisfaction

the words designed
to penetrate within

faster than the hypodermic’s nose
by-passing follicles and fat

the words bounce against your walls
they echo and then want to come out

let the words say you

celebrate you

flipping all your dark corners
inside out