The Words We Never Made

Human lips never learned to form
the word. We taught ourselves speech,
and breathing and kissing, maybe not
in that order, and we learned to hold
things close to chest, like each other.

We made a lot of words, many of them
from only four letters, but not that word.
It simply never occurred to us to name
that feeling; it was a feeling. You feel
those, you don't need to isolate them

unless you are trying to control things
better left unnamed. A word that anchors
things into a static shape, time, place;
binds feet, clips wings, calls things bad.
So much unhappiness in just a sound.

Whatever the world was, this time is
different and we never made that word;
instead talk of praise, as in praise songs,
praise letters, and those three little words,
I praise you. We never made the other

word, so its four-letter mirror reflection
was never made either. We substituted
praise for one idea, and never worded
the other, period. Our language works
better with Love and Hate  unnamed.