A bold and persistent lie

Go ahead and just throw those words out into the world. The ones you've been afraid to say out loud. Pray nobody uses them against you.

Will they be more harmful now that they've been released? They were already there inside your head. Riding around in circles on heavy hoofed creatures. Treading paths where nothing will grow again.

The refrain "but words can never hurt me" is a bold and persistent lie. Words possess the power to wound. Words can cut more deeply than any blade, lodge more shrapnel than an explosive device. Words fester and infect, refusing to heal or even scab.

By exposing these things you are more open than any intimate physical encounter would make you. You are unguarded and naked in ways a lover could never exploit.

May your revelation make you beautiful and relieve a burden you've long carried. May your late night ponderings no longer rest on this collection of letters and punctuation.