Every day
People talked and talked
They blabbed and blabbed
So then
The government decided
Everyone gets 100 words in a day
Then the next day, 99
Then 98
And so on
On the first day
In school
We read our stories
I watched child after child
Read until
They stopped-
Tried to say more-
And then the teacher would simply say, “Good”
On the next day
I watched
As people said on the news
That all schools were canceled
And broke off
In the middle
And for many days
This continued
On one day
There was one word
Everyone hugged their family
I saw a couple with one child
The father said, “I”
The mother said “Love”
And the child said, “You”
And the next
People panicked
And motioned with their arms
Frantically
And through it all
I had never
Said one single word
So I took my words
I added them up
I took out a piece of paper
And I found a pencil
I wrote down, “5050 x ∞
And so I took those words
I handed them out
To everyone around the world
And they looked into each other’s
eyes
And swore
To never waste a word
