Do you know what your child is saying?

Sticks and stones may break my bones

Well they don’t tell you words are rocks

They don’t tell you threats aren’t empty

They feel full, strong, triumphant

When they slam against your skull.

Do you know what your child is saying?

When he finds her on the playground

She’s pink and sweet and

Something about that sets him off

Her existence next to his existence

Scratchy, like sandpaper.

Do you know how you’ve built your child’s ego?

He blocks out the sun when he stands

Up above her like an angry god

Kicking dirt in her face

Just like you’ve buried his innocence

You told him not to cry

So he sees her tears as weakness

As proof that he has won.

Do you know what your child is saying?

Do you know the venom he spits

Is something he learned from you?

And that baby girl

Who comes home with scraped knees

A runny nose

A lump in her throat

Doesn’t know she’s worth something.

And girls like her

Who are grown up now

Old enough to know better

Don’t know better

Because they were told the same things

Do you know what your child is saying?

When he tells his wife

Years from now

To not speak

To not breathe

To not exist

Unless it’s for him

How sticks and stones become

Fists and grips

And it’s all okay

Because you didn’t know what your child was saying.