Word games

We are all aware that this world is becoming more and more dependent on the Internet for every single thing like a blind man depends on his stick. What has brought about this “revolution” is what constitutes as the important component of our communication with each other and everyone else on the Web - the word. And the English language is a thing of beauty, which makes playing around with English words a joy forever.

Here is what resulted from my games with the type of words that fascinate me the most – the words that have various meanings, which more often than not lead to many an interesting drama if misunderstood. This post is hardly going to cause any drama but should be an interesting read nonetheless.

The ferry beats the wave.
A new adventure, a new high.
The waves beat the ferry.
Some people cry, some people die.

In the first line, beats = the act of hitting against something. In the third line, beat = defeat.

She slips.
He catches.
9 days later,
man and wife.
He slips.
She sighs.
9 months later,
a new-born life.

In the first line, slips = to lose balance or fall down. In the fifth line, slips = *censored*.

She likes him.
He’s like her.
This love story,
will end bitter.

In the first line, likes = to be fond of or love someone. In the second line, like = similar.
(What I’m trying to convey is that she likes him, but he’s like her. So he is similar to her. What is the only information we have about her from this quartet? That she likes him. So if he’s similar, he likes him too! This could be interpreted in two ways. Either he is so self-obsessed, like Reggie from Archie comics. Or if him in the first line refers to some third person, then he’s like her would refer to him liking this third person too. And obviously, depending on this third person’s sexual orientation, one of them is going to be unhappy! Or for a more twisted version, she likes him, the guy in the poem, and he likes a him who is some third person. So she likes the gay guy.)

The drill bore into the hole.
Bore bore bore.
The drill bore into the hole.
Bore bore bore.
The drill bore into the hole.
Bore bore bore.

In the first line, bore = to drill into something. And depending on your capacity to tolerate, either in the fourth line, or definitely in the sixth line, bore = dull and repetitious. Or if you have an innate dislike for drills or my poetry, you'll pretty much be bored by the second line.

You are but known
as a human being.
Yet what do you know
about being human?

In the second line, being = creature. And in the fourth line, being = conjugation of the verb ‘to be’.

I could have gone on but I didn’t want to write too many because then its novelty might have worn off. And I only gave explanations to each “don’t-know-what-to-call-it” as I didn’t want my words to be misinterpreted, and I did not mean in any way to undermine my readers’ intelligence quotients.

A picture may speak a thousand words, but words draw more than a thousand pictures. And if you’re not a good artist, it is something you might have to keep an I on. I mean, an eye on.