4 Letter Word

4 Letter Word

By: Husam (Sam) Salman

What’s that word…? You know the one,

It’s the that square peg that fits into that

Square hole. It is the thing we feel, in those

Comfortable silences, the shape of the

Place in your heart… it fits in your

Heart shaped heart. [You know the one]

Songs about boxes shaped like this,

Rode airwaves in autumn of ’93.

We put chocolate in them

And call it a holiday…pfft…(holiday

We don’t even get the day off).

It’s about giving a shit – everyday.

We sometimes photocopy the word

And use it like our Smufy, Lesbian or _________

(I can’t remember, there are so many)

To mask the thing we can’t articulate

With simple fineness, yet it manages to

Fit best                                                 every time.

There are dozens of poems

With not much in them
But the word love.

It’s the word that fills

You up while fucking deep, poured all over

You, like honey-sticky-sweet

Eat dirt with it and stick it in

Your hole whole.

It happens in the kitchen, while…’cooking’.

How do we know, it’s not

What happens when

Four men share one another and

Pile into each other like rabid dogs?

This word is the complex thing

That can’t really be measured,

Bought, or traded.

It’s just given, forever unlimited –

Fortune seeker beware, you WILL find

What you’re looking for.

Then there’s the word, ‘us’.

It sort of has the idea of love

Intertwined in its mix.

Unconditionally

It’s the size of an atom,

Yet measured in stars,

And time. It’s the spell

We don’t want to fall into

But want to selectively cast out.

(Which is sounding crazy

As the concept itself, love)

It’s the thing that has that

Ginger grip on your hip-side

Eyes locked in awe, and lips

Quivering for that instance between

Kisses. It is the single distinction

Between faux real and fo’real!

Don’t trip, but you will fall into it

Again.