The dictionary
is smarter than me.

Its vocabulary
is vaster than mine.

Like the Eskimos
and their fifty words for snow

it has eighty words, at least,
for love

and I have maybe ten at most.

And it has a hundred for hate
and I’m down to a mere handful.

I canonize the dictionary
for its usefulness
and, at the same time,
I execrate it
for its blatant superiority.

Let’s see.
Canonize –
that makes eleven for love.

And execrate –
hate,
I have a new recruit for you.