Contributor Series 6: A Currency of Words
Verbal Destruction and Restoration
By Ryan Haack
With my words, I destroy you.
Little slices at first, like cardstock papercuts to the skin
between your fingers, for which there is no special term.
An insult and you feel like an ant, crushed underneath
a giant foot; even worse when you don’t see it coming.
Then I yell and call you a name, maybe spit out a curse
and you’re like a pea crushed between my finger and thumb.
On and on, verbal punches to the gut, striking your soul
with relentless precision; singularly focused on the win.
I laugh and you’re gone.
I make you feel like you’re nothing.
But, you are something.
You are everything.
In the mirror I see the lumberjack who has chopped you down;
the bruiser, the beast, the brute, the bastard; the darkness.
My hope is to restore that which I have destroyed, to heal that
which I have hurt, to spark the fire I have extinguished.
To somehow raise back to life that which I have killed.
With my words, I’ll lay a foundation of trust, solid and unshakable;
erect walls that are sturdy, with windows to see into your soul.
I’ll encourage and delight you, supply you with all you need
to decorate your home how you would like: pink, of course.
I’ll secure the roof, your protection complete. Your house, your
home, your place of refuge. And I will come back, meekly, knocking.
Asking softly if I may enter. Will you have me back? Will
you invite me in? Will you laugh with me again?
Will you smile authentically, crinkling your nose? Will you
let me hold you? Will you forgive me and allow me to stay?
Will you?
Ryan Haack’s poem Just Noticing appeared at vox poetica in July 2010.
Oh how well your poem describes the power of words to wound and to heal. Thank you for a magnificent piece!
Ryan, you brought me to tears. I have been the one that was crushed a million years ago. I ask you, will you behave if she takes you back? Will you?