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The Battle of Words

by Arnold Hollander

The words were mixing inside my head
circling like vultures over something dead.
A vocabulary of angst and pain,
a verbal assault full of disdain.
I used some verbs in a counterattack,
predicting my predicate would bounce back,
and used an adjective or two to color my reply.
Opposed by invectives I heaved a sigh,
then sent in idioms from days gone by.
They seemed to work, though I don’t know why.
The battle was now in full engagement;
I called on those clever adverbs and by arrangement,
they leapt to the fore with those trailing ly’s
lighting the language like a squad of fireflies.
Delivering the coup de grâce and, to end the fray,
I hurled my favorite expression: “Have a nice day.”


Copyright © 2009 by Arnold Hollander

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