What It Looks Like To Us and The Words We Use

-- after Ada Limon

I know the words we use define us,
but it looks to me like magic

when you use your mouth to talk.

To me, words are more than symbols,

they are what we are, we are sad,

we are tired, we are beautiful

when our tongues slip, when

we forgot what we were going

to say, or when we are struggling

for the way to say it.  The words

I would say about you look like wind;

I am invisible until I've spoken of you.