VERBAL TAG (An Original Poem)

I stumbled upon a fellow
as he struggled with his bag,
he seemed an easy target
for a game of verbal tag

He was ordinary, plain,
I knew I wouldn’t be in danger
as I calmly walked up to him and asked,
“Allow me to paint you a picture, stranger?”

“But you have no paint,” he said,
“Please, don’t be absurd!”
“Excuse me my dear fellow,
I paint in ordinary words.”

He replied, “Sir, you have no brushes,
not a canvas here to find.”
“My pen’s the only brush I need,
the canvas is your mind.”

The man, looking a bit perplexed,
reached up to scratch his head
and took me by surprise
with these fourteen words he said,

“Allow me to scribe a poem for you
of crashing waves and soaring birds.”
“Sir, but where is this pen you’ll use
to scribe your page of words?”

A brush came from his pocket,
a canvas from his bag
it seemed an artist beat me
in this round of verbal tag

Feeling squarely beaten
it seemed to me absurd
that an artist out-foxed a poet
at his game of wit and words.

(gifs sourced from Giphy.com)

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A little about this poem - Verbal Tag is one of my earliest poems and appeared in my first published collection of poetry entitled, “Continuum” (now out of print.)

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