19 The Silent Letter

Some letters are
too dangerous
to write to think
to say

Some letters are
too dangerous.
Stay out
of their way.

On summer afternoons
the boys played a game:
Smear the Silent Letter.
I cannot speak the name.

A football, passed,
whoever caught it became
the silent letter the word
I dare not name,

and then was smeared
for he became the
silent letter the one
I dare not name.

Everyone who played
was the same, anyone
could have made the catch.

All the boys all
fired up, only one
the match to set them aflame.
The silent letter, the one
I dare not name.