Feel what rhymes between us without words:

a texture, a smell, a movement that acts,

infuses more than show and tell. Body language

the most basic, the most primal, the most real.

This is necessity. We must be able to go on

when everyone, everything, when the world, is

simply deaf and mute. Communication exists

beyond print, beyond the repetitive sounds of

ideas, beyond rhetorical music, beyond the audio

of complexly-crass civilized thought. We have

language and verbal expression to make us feel better,

feel like we are making our mark on time, the small

seconds left of it, the treacherous and monotonous

abundance of it; but when all is over one last

thing, and it only, should flash in our brains:

a smile, the expressive smile of life lived.

 

by Nathan Dey Johnston  

Nathan Dey Johnston lives in Kokomo, Indiana. He has contributed poems to From the Well House and Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore!

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