malicious gossip

A. Daumier

...on malicious gossip by GEORGE ELIOT  1819 - 1880

gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker...


from: Daniel Deronda (novel 1874 - 06, her last opus)

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malicious gossip

malicious gossip comes

like poisonous arrows

whooshing by the dozen

piercing my conscience -

in gusts of venomous

spittle searing soft tissues …

were there mirrors to bundle

the lot - to fire it back,

spit the attacking rays and

slime right back to the sender …

why do I seem so upset,

why do I care anyway?

.

how empty must they be

who try to fill their precious moments

with fastidious scoffing, sneering, jeering –

the back hardly turned …

.

I just loathe to lose time –

I just loathe to get my hem dirty

wading through a mud-like stock

of libel and slander -

integrity has always been the admired objective

why should I - weathered and marked by rough tides -

not just stand up like a beautiful Amazon

armoured with cautious pride in my eyes

and go against precarious prejudice.

.

once in a while once in a while or so…

.

but I know one way or other

it will be me again who stumbles -

stumbles self-consciously over the edge

carefully trying to catch my frayed intentions

while falling – and while the armour still

seems to protect me

I feel its harsh plates

dig deep into my skin and my flesh

reminding me of the way it is, always has been:

social life has its planes with sharply honed blades

abrasing and marking like a

milling machine whatever it spurns

leaving behind barely recognizable

disfigured and marred: the victim

by gabriele brunsch 2009

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malicious gossip comes