If you take away everything,
leave behind the words inside me.
That fill my hands
dropping rain through my fingers.
Words I can kiss,
drink,
splash on my cheeks
like the elixir of life.
Words that become butterflies,
parakeets, fragrances
filling the room,
opening cupboards to elusive spices,
salt that opens the mouth
like a large kiss,
the mineral substance of being.
I know how precious
they are to me.
You have heard the passion
of their power.
I shield them lest they be mocked.
Come misshapen from sterile tongues.
Be used like captured birds
that have lost their joy,
silent in their cages.
In your keeping
they are safe,
visible to the world.
Immune from harm.
For the child who finds them,
for whom,
I saved the words inside me.
To be stacked like blocks,
thrown like a ball,
sung like lullabies,
whose dreams are theirs.
Bolts of lightning
to light up their eyes,
and make them laugh or sing,
or cry.