We used to exchange
beautiful poetic words,
but quills are now daggers,
intended to wound,
and slice each other through.

I witness comment threads
becoming bloodied battlefields
of hate and degrading spite,
where poets wage war
over who is in the right.

Tearing down metaphors,
crushing the spirit,
slashing at rhymes,
becoming belittling critics,
between the smashed lines.

Welcome to the reality
and the destruction
of our own kind,
which leaves poetry
and its purpose far behind.

Has this become a poet's curse,
waging war on each other
with hurtful words?
Will this finally all end
with the assasination of verse.

©️Lizzie Bevis