Sticks and Stones

    

Sticks and Stones

  

A word can be a stake to pierce a heart, 

Or serve to heal – to lift a downcast soul.

So sentences can tear a being apart

Or help to make a sundered spirit whole.

  

And some might say that words are only words –

Not weapons that can injure bodies – yet

The mind, unshielded, takes the words to heart.

Our minds affect our bodies, we forget.

  

Be gentle with your words.  The truth that’s said

With good intentions never needs to wound.

Yet words can slaughter, though the culprits’ names

In dailies’ headlines rarely are festooned.

  

2015 April 11th, Sat. 5:33 pm

Brooklyn, New York