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NORTH WEST WORDS<br />
SPRING / SUMMER <strong>2018</strong> ISSUE 9<br />
What Word Would You Choose to Be?<br />
I’d want a word with body, cute with curlicues<br />
A dainty word that alerts, to inveigle you …<br />
in close. I’d like a whisper of intrigue, like why, maybe?<br />
Or I could be a cry, a call of nature, forged<br />
A word that stutters life, a craw in the back of your throat<br />
Or the meaningful bleat of a new born kitten<br />
Trapped in a sack of stones<br />
I’d like to sound like a badge of courage – suffragette, for instance<br />
Or be The Scream. Yes, I’d want to be a shout for change<br />
But, also a word that makes you laugh<br />
And signals cunning. I’d be a clever word, packed with guile<br />
A flash of solar, a ray of lunar, scarlet with a green feather boa<br />
Word of significance. Burlesque? Like a Reubens woman.<br />
There, I have it. If I could choose to be one word?<br />
Word I’d choose is ‘flesh.’<br />
Kate Ennals<br />
Note Left on a Librarian’s Desk<br />
In the midst of a time<br />
when values are shed<br />
like house-animal-d<strong>and</strong>er,<br />
peace a perfect suspect,<br />
war always in bed, a<br />
potent rascal on call,<br />
constant opinions on screens<br />
with dumb mouths<br />
unable to pause for fear<br />
silence will crack<br />
the space between vows<br />
of reason <strong>and</strong> rhyme,<br />
now's the time to step up<br />
<strong>and</strong> shout<br />
the ultimate outrage:<br />
"Someone has torn eight<br />
pages out of The<br />
New York Review of Books."<br />
Leo V<strong>and</strong>erpot<br />
43
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