Poetry Puzzle Pieces

White Lies

When I was a kid, all my worries could be healed with such simple phrases. 

"Sticks and stones", They said. 

"Names will never hurt" They said. 

And I believed them. A wide eyed kid who's light of day was to get away. 

I believed their little white lies. 

But their lies didn't stay little, or white. 

When I was ten, I snapped all the sticks and broke all the stones they threw at me- 

Hoping that one day they would think something new of me. 

Because their white lies had cocooned me like a safety net, 

But then dropped me onto the hard concrete of reality. 

One day they stopped telling me white lies, 

They gave me brutal honesty. 

"Hit them back" They said. 

"They won't do it again"  They said. 

And so I did. 

My mouth became an uncensored shot gun with never ending bullets. 

My arms and legs became limbs of steal. 

I hit them back, In every way possible I hit them back,

A ten year old kid causing tears on a daily basis. 

Every night I would go home and cry, ashamed of what I had become. 

That is a burden no ten year old should ever carry. 

Then, they had the audacity to turn on me. 

"Reckless, irresponsible" They said. 

"Suspension, expulsion" They said. 

But now they don't say anything. 

I sit here now, sixteen years of age and wonder why I listened to them. 

Their little white lies became the work of spies sent out to destroy me. 

My wide eyed gaze became narrow and unfazed. 

I sit here now, six years later. 

Only just realising that I didn't need to listen to their white lies. 

Because, they were just after all, lies. 

Sprinkled white with innocence, 

To hide the monsters they create.