WORD POWER

She chanted it defiantly:
"Sticks and stones
may break my bones
but names will never hurt me,"
wielded it like a warrior
backed up against a wall.
I don’t remember what
we had called her,
no doubt some ugly word
we’d heard a grown up
hurl in a rage.
Surely we didn’t know
what it meant, knew only
that it could hurt,
and when we saw
the tears on her face,
took malicious glee
in knowing we’d scored
a hit, no matter how many
times she repeated the mantra
her mother had taught
her to say.