If words could truly heal, would I become a liar?
Pathologically bent to set the world on fire
📖
Spill oil slick gossip, drown everything in crude
Spew fake honesty, just to cause pain and be rude
📖
Over self-righteous beats I’d spit out barbed wire
Hyperbolic falsehoods feeding a melodic pyre
📖
If words could heal, big pharma would tie tongues up in court
Lay out bodies on the bottom line while they play at resorts
📖
Look in the House for weapons of mass deception
Fueled by dark money, gorging on base preconceptions
📖
In this current climate, is it possible to change
Or are we destined to be targets hung at the range?
📖
If words could truly heal, we should all be physicians
Throw away sticks and stones, all our munitions
📖
Take an oath to harm no one with blatant hypocrisy
Heal ourselves with the language of kindness and empathy
📖
Flood the airwaves with arias of affirmations
Knit fractured bones, lives, and even nations
📖
Fear of the made up other will not cause a curative deficiency
Language is no barrier to gentle grace and sympathy
📖
Maybe we’ll select leaders by the trauma they’ve undone
Therapist kings and queens with room on their couch for everyone
📖
Imagine the lives we could mend if only our mendacity would end
———
A/N
The opening line was inspired from Lamar Wiggins’ great poem:
(and no, I’m not going to qualify this as the “Great thing” I commented could come from that line, but I still felt inspired)
About the Creator
Sean A.
A happy guy that tends to write a little cynically. Just my way of dealing with the world outside my joyous little bubble.
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Comments (10)
Excellent poem! Words wield a mighty power. Some of my favourite lines are: “ If words could truly heal, we should all be physicians Throw away sticks and stones, all our munitions.”
Well, sometimes they can, and at others, we wish we'd never said them! Well done, Shaun.
I love it! Going to read Lamar's now ...
Very well written, Shaun! You are an excellent writer. On your inspiration for this poem, Lamar Wiggins, he himself is a great writer and also a very good friend.
Wow! That turned out great!!! I had to read it twice. Phenomenal word choices that are right in your face slapping it awake... -Look in the House for weapons of mass deception Fueled by dark money, gorging on base preconceptions- 😮🤩 And thank you so much for the mention!
Holey moley, this is great. So many fantastic lines. This, I so wish "Heal ourselves with the language of kindness and empathy."
Wow this is a great piece of writing!!
Sharply wrought! the Rhyming couplet form really worked toward the dark humor element. If only truth mattered as much as it should.
True words, Shaun. spit out barbed wire, put a shock through me - I wish, wish, wish, we could: Heal ourselves with the language of kindness and empath and stop all the insanity. Nice work.
Dang, if words could heal, this poem just cured my existential sniffles!