Abstract meanings (poem)

Burn the dictionaries

They reek of ambiguity

Whenever I want definite answers

I am not talking of things

Things are themselves

Whatever one might call them

The words being just

A convenient reference.

If any confusion hovers,

I see, I hear, I smell

or taste and touch well

and once I know them,

I know what the word means

because it means them.

What actually puzzles me are

those things, oh not things

But whatever they are

In the creases of doors ajar

Love, friendship, Emotion

Life, Happiness, Ambition

Individuality, idealism, divinity,

Freedom, truth, meditation,

Ethics, desire, mystique and so on

Whatever I take them to be from here on

They turn out to be something else

My mouth has turned so sour. Like

Love is care, commitment, forgiveness

Then I discovered possession,

Space cringes, romance, cheating and pain

Life is beautiful and ugly

Some bright guys say it’s vain

By default; discover your meaning

That left the bishop constantly fretting

He said there was a purpose, God’s.

On Friendship, I read several quotes

Suggesting sharing, helping and affection

but it was tinted with envy

Doused in many a practical concern

Even truth was not absolute

It was relative and manipulative.

Happiness was the most evasive -

Being in the moment, love and care,

Pursuing your dream or crude pleasure

Serving humanity or spontaneity.

The grim mystics and the philosopher

Exhale clouds putting it all to subjectivity

Then when some schmuck

Comes with those airs of certainty

And talks of literal meaning

I wish I could fire him.

What meaning do I take,

Meanings mean these things

From which vagueness springs,

Rendering the meanings meaningless.

So much more in societies

which go on wandering aimless,

Although walking ahead -

Since we don’t walk backwards -

But in which direction, no clue they had

And they have stopped caring

Some routines they keep murmuring

And caution about not thinking much

That's why I speak such

That let's burn the dictionaries

Because they reek of ambiguity

Whenever I want definite answers.