Words I Never Met

I built a tower out of words,

            some twenty stories high.

Many of them truths, though

            many more were lies.

I turned them into fortresses

            without a way inside,

a hollow box of letters where

            I thought I might reside.

No windows and no doorways

            to let the air pass through.

I was all set up to suffocate

            and be quietly subdued.

I built the words around me

            in secret, crippling ways.

They stared so harshly at me

            that I couldn’t meet their gaze.

The words began to all rise up

            and walk out on their own,

claiming life and substance they

            could not have found alone.

They shook and moved around me,

            blocking out my view

of all the better words

            which held their places, true.

I knew some words could heal me

            and rise up to define,

the purpose that had brought me there;

            the calm I hoped to find.

But not all words are equal.

            Not all words believe,

that they owe me anything.

            Those are the words that leave.

Some troubled me, some hurt,

            Some caused me to regret.

But perhaps the ones that are the worst

            are the words I never met.