RosesByOtherNames

 Mere happenstance of sound has brought
   Together choruses of words
 With meanings disparate, unsought,
   Yet forced by poetry to serve
 As members of a traveling band.
   With "love" comes "dove" and "from above";
 "Command" is yoked to "understand".
   Conjoined with "moon" stiff verses shove
 Both "tune" and "June", as if they meant
   Something related; neither do.
 Instead, imagine accident
   Of language made the term for "true"
 Be spoken so it rhymed with "moose".
   Might quadrupedal herbivores
 Take center stage, along with "juice",
   As lyric praise of virtue soars
 To fancied heights? And could the hue
   Of honest color be replaced,
 So that instead of loyal blue
   The noblest tints would be puce-based?

 The mind recoils. And yet, c'est vrai,
 In other tongues it's said that way!

TopicPoetry - TopicLanguage - Datetag20040201

(correlates: FadingTraces, WindToThyWings, DiagnosisMortality, ...)