A Word on Words

Words…

Words are fickle creatures

Sometimes they are friends

Sometimes they are weapons

Sometimes they help pretend

Words can be manipulated

And used for unjust gain

Words can hint at something else

And make us go insane

Words can build up structures

Words can brace our allies

Words have much more power

Than most men seem to realize

Words can be fictitious

Words can just tell lies

Words can turn you black and blue

Words can help you die

Words are also meaningless

When fallacies start to leak

Words can mean no more than breath

And that’s when words are weak

Words can just be letters

G b t and k

And when they’re put together

We have nothing real to say

But words are evil too

Words are sharpened swords

Words are arrows that the bow –

The tongue shoots till we’re gored

Words can help us heal

They can be just breath

They can also be the rope

That strangles you to death

Words, even in their weakness

Of spewing off misconceptions

Can still be strong enough to hurt

Those with misdirection

When words are used repeatedly

Even if they seem incorrect   

Will over time take the mind

And diabolically redirect

Even lies can chant in our heads

Like permanent mental canticles

These lies tie knots around our souls

Clenching us in emotional manacles

Words are wicked and wonderful

Words are like hunger and thirst

They can give a man sustenance when he needs

But fill a full man and he bursts

Words can be handled like people

Words can be twisted and useful

And with the words that make up this poem

I've shown you that this is truthful

Words can be honey and wine

They can encourage us when we hear it

But words can also be poison

That torments and sickens our spirit

Words can become habitual

Which is foolish, if you consider

A soldier thinks before he fires his weapon

But we don’t, even when we’re bitter

If words were not natural to us

Maybe we would see their price

Maybe if we paid for every word

Insensitive Gossip wouldn't be a vice

Words are not simply creatures

Sometimes tameness cannot be learned

Some words have no way to be lucid

Play with fire, and you will be burned

The mind is the wicked general

Words are the enemy’s encampment

The mind is the diabolical curse

And words are the evil enchantment

If snakes are known for their venom

And snakes are known for their curves

Add the curviest letter – an S –                                               

And I've shown you the power of WORDS.

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