With a 40-year olds vocabulary
When I was only ten
I never stumbled on a word
I came across back then.

No matter what I read or saw
I knew the meaning of it.
Thesaurus was my dearest friend
I early grew to love it.

I excelled at “Word Power” games -
That Reader’s Digest feature.
I almost never missed a word -
I could have been its teacher.

Then suddenly, out of the blue,
A little brain bleed hit me
It didn’t hurt my body much,
But in my mind it bit me.

It wiped a zillion useful words
Off the blackboard of my mind.
It took the names of common things
And left me far behind.

Everybody will forget
Friend’s names and sometimes places.
I could no longer find the word
For things like parts of faces.

So once again I dug it out,
My old friend the Thesaurus
I need it now most every day,
Thank God it’s still there for us.
ljm