To let hurtful words go. To let them go up like smoke and blow away in the wind To not capture them in a box and occasionally stick my nose in And breathe their putridness as if I needed them to live. To let others' foolishness or wickedness or offensiveness Be simply silly As I am silly sometimes And hope everyone forgets in a hurry. To stop sticking their words on me With double-sided tape and globs of glue To not press them into my heart of hearts As if they knew the intricacies there And that their words would touch me so. To not take those words to the laboratory And dissect them under bright lights As if they were scripture. To not stamp them onto records And play them repeatedly on my Victrola As if they were symphonies and I enjoyed them. To not build my house upon them As if they were foundational and universal. But to let the words go Like scents on the wind Or flashes of color on the retina Or the blur of bushes outside my car window. To beli