Words of Power

The man next door

is beset by demons.

When he's off his medication 

I hear him banging around

trying to fight them off. 

He always resorts at last 

to his most potent curse

which he yells with grim intensity

and awesome courage: "Fuck off!" 

Judging by the sudden silence,

it works. Then he switches on

his talkback radio, loud

enough to hold the spirit hordes

back beyond his walls:

words from the outside world

making a noisy babble in his ears 

to drown those other messages 

only his ears can hear.

I have words for him too.

"If you keep using my phone

or cadging milk and sugar, 

I'll need you to pay." (Thinking, 

"I'm not your mother.") Now 

he never speaks to me, which I prefer….

But he's in the right place. Every night 
I send through the fence, like lasers, 

the words "Light" and “Love".

Magaly, in Art with Me at "imaginary garden with real toads" says she believes words have power (I do too!) and that they can be a way towards healing (so do I!). She asks us to explore "one or three (even thirteen) things you believe words can do for you and others".