Poem – Verbal Physical Wounds

Verbal Physical Wounds

Once there was a hot temper’d, lad

Whose words were wick’d, abusive and bad

Sometimes he turn’d violent and become mad

Dad then gave some nails with a wooden pad

“Drive a nail when you are in anger

On to this pad, using this hammer”

Thirty – something he drove on the first day

Only two and twenty on the following day

He found it easier to keep anger at bay,

Than keep on drivin’ nails day after day

One fine day no nails were driven on the pad,

Boy was then summon’d by his sensible dad

‘Look, my boy, at the pockmark’d pad

The surface will never be smooth, as it had

A verbal wound will never be healed

Even if one offers apology after apology

The scar will remain for ever

Like pockmarks on the pad.”