Living word.

For the first time I realize these words
are cognizant of their own corporeality
These words know they are spoken
they know they transmit meaning
and they lift themselves from the page
and dance silently, boldly through the air
into my eyes, my ears, my nose, my mouth
and I taste their power
and smell their reverberations -
Commanding, unseeming
An open book becomes a heavy stone
a weapon, to be hurled
to be absorbed
to be defended.
A book that knows itself
and knows that I will soon
digest it.