Words

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but last I checked, cuts and bruises heal. You can watch them heal with time and you can take medication to lessen the pain.

Words-- words are so much more powerful. They don't just hurt you, they stay in your mind and every time you pull out the memory, you accidentally cut yourself. Words have this ability to snake their way around every wall we put up around our hearts and slice open even the coldest and most rigid of them.

Words are what we are taught from a young age to be the most important thing that makes us human. Words are what separate us from the animals of the earth-- and sometimes what brings us closer.

Words on a page, words on jealous lips, words on a screen, words in your head, they all hurt. Words don't callus with time. Every time we think of them, words just open a new wound we thought we had forgotten about.

Sometimes words manifest themselves physically.

I knew a girl, and her father's words manifested themselves in bruises, and yet another whose words from her own brain manifested themselves as cuts and scars. Neither of them were less beautiful. But the world told them so.

I knew a boy and the words of the people who tormented him manifested themselves in his drawings and he was all but too scared to ask for help because what escape is there now? Everywhere there is a screen, the words come.

Words are a cycle, a never-ending cycle, that gets passed down from generation to generation. Because the only words we were allowed to pick up were words of hate, envy, segregation, and distinction. The only way we could feel better is by not being at the bottom. So we put someone else there.

We think we are brave until we are asked to use words. More than words. Telling the world is hard sometimes, but there are some words people just can't die without hearing.

Sometimes the only words people need are, "I'm listening."