The Wizard

                    for Robert Russell Calder

if rhymes were grappling hooks & his life hung

by a thread he would throw a rhyme that chimed

with a plane passing overhead   loop around

a weather vane   haul himself to safety

       with a perfectly timed swing to a rooftop

       like a beltless Tarzan impressing Jane

       dressed in a python skin his bare hands killed

       for only he’d been brave enough and skilled

can words cause impact   rhymes renew   strike chimes

that ring through time   can words heal damage

coarse sentences wrought or even suture wounds

can words save lives   magic make   alter moods  

they can     declaimed by wizards in disguise
making music from even plangent cries

 copyright  ©  Dick Russell, 2014