Sticks And Stones

“Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words can also hurt me.
Stones and sticks break only skin,
while words are ghosts that haunt me.
Slant and curved the word-swords fall,
it pierces and sticks inside me.
Bats and bricks may ache through bones,
but words can mortify me.
Pain from words has left its scar,
on mind and heart that’s tender.
Cuts and bruises have all healed,
it’s words that I remember.”

~ Ruby Redfort