A small and humble tribute to Neil Gaiman

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

- Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll

Neil, I wish I had your words.

I wish I could make words do for me what they do for you.
Words dance for you and come alive for you;
they become the right words by simply passing through your hands.
Your words defy the plain ink-and-paper they're typed on, to glitter crimson gold against the deepest night.
You get inside our heads, and slowly it dawns on us that the world didn't quite make sense before. Until.

And we close the book and lay it down,
but your words, once freed, won't be tidied away.
They creep behind us on softly silent soles and whisper so suggestive;

those ticking, tickling troublesome shadows around the corners of our minds.