Man and Woman by Edvard Munch
POETRY DISPATCH No. 377 | July 1, 2012
WILLIAM STAFFORD
PURIFYING THE LANGUAGE OF THE TRIBE
Walking away means
“Goodbye.”
Pointing a knife at your stomach means
“Please don’t say that again.”
Leaning toward you means
“I love you.”
Raising a finger means
“I enthusiastically agree.”
“Maybe” means
“No.”
“Yes” means
“Maybe.”
Looking like this at you means
“You had your chance.”
[from:THE DARKNESS AROUND US IS DEEP]
thanks for another good one
A reminder that a gesture, or a one word reply are more potent than ceaseless chatter…grazie
This purification gets lost in millions of emails, tweets, blogs-all those little gestures and clues to what’s really happening. Is there an emoticon for “maybe” means “no”…