The Four-Letter Word

Select four letters in your mind

From out of six and twenty;

Half hail from a certain kind,

From consonants a plenty.

But the vowels (merely five)

You drop - except for two;

Only 'ee' and 'oh' survive

And chosen from the few.

The consonants (a score plus one)

Are difficult to pick

But 'el' and 'vee' will soldier on,

Yes! they will do the trick;

They're juxtaposed to style a word,

Familiar when translated,

The name, I think you've often heard,

Of a creature God created.

A modest word, a lucid fellow,

such a tiny soul;

An animal so softly mellow

The gentle little vole.

He roams around within his bounds

Causing no one harm;

'Mister Vole', then surely sounds

Beseeming of his charm.

But this expression can't be so...

As apt as God intended;

Its sequence, transformed long ago,

Which man has thus amended;

The word is bogus, all can tell,

And clearly God above...

Meant these characters to spell

L-O-V-E, love.

                          ASJ