Relax and Mean Yourself

Most words manage being
Lazy most of the time.
Only now and again

Does one word do a lot
Of work, if it isn’t
One of the homonyms,

And even those, most times,
Are kept well-distinguished
As to sense by context.

A few words get worked hard,
Knockabout, half to death—
And and or, for instance.

In English, definite
Vs. indefinite
Articles bear the weight

Of intentions for whole
Passages, whole readings,
While negations carry

The fuel for arguments,
The entire energy
Of troop ships of meanings.

Poor no. Poorer not. Not
Even the adjectives
And adverbs work that hard.

Let us be remembered
As dullish common nouns,
Bottles, vehicles, jars

That can name things that can
Work as tools, but tend to
Mean no more than we do.