Be careful before you open a six-gun mouth
to pull the trigger with words ballistic
or spray the room with linguistic pellets
without a choke, at the speed of sound
because high-velocity physics is a tricky thing
for anyone to control, anger and scorn hard cases
that may not strike at calculated angles, instead,
a beating heart abused by blowback and ricochet
Posts
I really like this. Words as bullets...that they are...or can be.
ReplyDeleteWords can be very ballistic.
ReplyDelete("There is life and death in the tongue."
words can be so hurtful - it's good to chew on them a bit before sharing sometimes.. love the labels :)
ReplyDeleteI might say, "A beating heart shredded by blowback and ricochet." It's more visual than the word 'abused.' Let's play with words...what would a soft fleshy thing look like if hit by a stray bullet or ricochet?
ReplyDeleteI love the poem and the metaphor works well. I think especially with children, adults often forget the damaging power of careless words spoken.