Kirsten Fernandes

Words

Roll them on your tongue.
Swirl them around your mouth.
Breathe them in.
Taste them.

The rich vibrant golds and greens, the colours of jealousy and fealty.
The yellows, friendship distilled, bottled sunshine.
The seething, vengeful reds,  passionate plums, the shy and retiring greys. 

Pause.

Close your eyes. Study the pictures on the inside of your eyelids.
Consider how they sound. 
Do these words, whisper, nudge, call out to be spoken?
Tease out each each syllable.
Do your nerves grate?
Do your muscles tense?
Check your hands. Are they cold and clammy?
Hot and sweaty? Open palms or fisted balls? 
Do these words tease, tempt, tantalise?
Or are they sharp and jagged, meant to hurt, meant to harm? 

Consider their origin.
Are these words royal orchid - carefully chosen - or common garden variety?
Were they conceived in love - or in deceit?
Can they, should they, live an existence independent of their speaker? 
Remember: words once spoken, cannot be recalled.

Finally, having considered all these things, exhale.
Breathe them into life.
Speak.
Give them voice.

Kirsten Fernandes
[c] 2008, all rights reserved.