Hangman

by Samuel Kuhn

When we were younger,
we used to play a game called hangman.
Guess the right letters and you set the man free. Guess the wrong letter
and you take the man’s life.

But see in the game you can keep guessing.
Letter after letter
paper after paper hanged
man after hanged man.
Until you finally got it.
Until you finally won!

But see if the person was real
wouldn’t we be incline to think before we spoke?
We so carelessly litter our minds with hateful words
and hateful speech
and we don’t think about how the other person feels.

The goal of this game shouldn’t be to guess
the letters to a silly 6 letter answer.
It should be to save the person from the gallows
and erase the words that put them there.
So think about it,
what words are going to set them free, a
nd what words are you gonna let tighten the noose.