Sticks and stones

They say words cannot hurt you,
but of course they can, for words
have energy and they have meaning
and when someone uses a word

about you, it can be a weapon
which wounds, deeply, and no
doubt that is what it is meant
to do, so words can hurt you and

perhaps, like sticks and stones,
the do break your bones, but in
hidden ways, where the bruises
do not show so easily, where the

scars remain covered, although
still tender, where the word has
been branded in searing fire onto
your heart, and more so because

you know that what was said was
neither kind, nor true, that it had
been used, purely to cause pain,
to injure you in ways that society

can accept - toxic is a word like
that, a word which means such
awful things - poisonous, virulent,
noxious, deadly, dangerous,

harmful, pernicious, injurious -
something you have never been,
and yet, this is a word someone
would use against you, which,

if it were a material thing, would
never be allowed to be raised or
wielded, and yet, it can be and
it is, because it is just a word,

a name  used more often in the
world today, a modern sword,
and sword contains word so
the secret is known if hidden,

and toxic is a word frequently
used about people for whom,
so the advice goes, there is
no place in your life, or there

should be no place in your life,
regardless of whether they are
really toxic, or just perhaps too
real for you, too other, different

and, in this modern age, words
are the new weapons revealing
someone else's pain; causing
pain to others, injury and hurt..

 words used as weapons in the
world, which we do not realise,
have such a capacity to break
much more than mere bones.