Title: Paper and Words
Fandom: Le Guin, the Hainish Cycle
Rating: G
Length: 218
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zana, Morgynleri & Icka for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: A language lasts as long as there are people who speak it, write it, read it, understand.



Paper and Words


O publish a paper of pins my love,
A letter of lemon and smoke
Frank it with incense and stamp it in steel
Words graven deep in the air

Wood pulp and ashes, water and rags
Lamp black and iron and gall
Bleeding out secrets that cannot be said
Thoughts pressed like petals in tomes

Pictures and proverbs may paper the walls
News line the cat-box or swaddle the fish
Tissue and tyvek, oil and wax
Pristine or printed, leaves gleaming pale

No one will read what is fuel on the fire
No one will study the wind
No one will whisper the lessons we learned
No one will know what was taught

Thinner than paper and thicker than blood
Smoother than vellum or clay
Cut the excuses, the deckle and chad
Confetti confessions and shred

With masking and stencils, graphite and string
Make oracles, airplanes and fans
Glitter and ribbon conceal and distract
Paper enchained, jeweled bright

Pin down the pain to the paper, my love
Paste down the thoughts in collage
Frame it or fold it or wind it in scrolls
Cut it in snowflakes to fly

Someone might read what is smoke on the wind
Someone might study the folds
Someone might sing of the stories we knew
Someone might reach for the stars