Everybody says that words don't hurt.
Sticks and stones and breaking bones
And words will never hurt you.
But I'd rather take the physical pain
Than the ache that words have caused.
Words can chew you up and spit you out
And make you feel like you are nothing.
Boys fight with fists in their childish rage
And get over their spat before it has really begun.
Girls fight dirty,
Clawing at each other with their sharp-ended words
And ending friendships with a rightly timed 'bitch'.
And once you say those fateful words,
You can never take them back.
Words can push someone over the edge.
Words can drive a normal, happy 'good girl' to cut
And drive an already depressed one to suicide.
If we all just thought before we spoke
And valued friends and the health of strangers before our pride
Maybe the world would be a little less painful
And maybe the mental scars might fade.