Words scraped off slate floors
Dazed and confused by the sweep of a stiff broom
Shunted into a corner to be half-forgotten
Then sucked into oblivion by the howling vacuum cleaner
Destined to be thrown out with all the other rubbish
No escape or salvation
There is no heaven for words
No afterlife either – just blank oblivion
Whether punctuated, hyphened, spoken or penned
They await their final destiny
Words of love, words of hate
Consonants, vowels, accents
All to be consumed and destroyed
They crawl out of open mouths
In jubilation or quiet desperation
To be cast adrift in the sea of unfinished sentences
Only to crumble into dust