Sticks And Stones Poem by Paul Jonathan Stertz

A verbal offense at a critical hour
Tears down fences and hits like a hammer
Smashes like a steam roller
Don't let em tell you words don't have power
When they're said by people that you care about
It's harder to just shut them out.
Words are dangerous, a loaded gun,
Watch where you point em

'Stay away from that, you screw up too much,
You break everything you touch!
You're a bonafide disaster,
We're gonna see your mug plastered
On the news when you get busted,
You must've learned it from the devil
Cause you didn't get it from us, now level
With us, what's your problem-what the hell? '

'You're such a loner, you never mattered, '
It might have been yesterday that this was said,
'Here's a gun and there's a bullet,
Why don't you take it, load it, and put it to your head?
Go ahead, you loser-now pull the trigger,
I wish that you were dead! '

Forget some words like that, if you can,
You're a better man than I am
Or worse-whichever-
But I don't know how to do that, I can't.

I wish I had the power to let it roll right off my back,
Like a duck with water
I've forgiven, sorry but forgetting is a quality I lack,
It just comes back, stronger
Wanna just put it all in a bucket and toss it
Underneath a bridge, and cut my losses.

Say it to them long enough, and strong enough,
And people will believe it
What you say just may be definite, and permanent,
Sometimes it's best to leave it
Unsaid