One brick, two bricks, three bricks,

coming at me from left and right.

Brick after painful brick,

with seemingly no end in sight.

Some bricks broke my spirit,

while others broke my trust.

I was knocked down but not out

and obsessed with crushing their

brick-slinging bloodlust.

When I picked myself up and brushed myself off,

my first thought was to throw the bricks back.

But then I asked myself, why should I be sullied

by an undignified counterattack?

And then a lightbulb went off. I’ll use words!

Paste and bind them to protect and insulate.

I’ll mortar myself using the characters of the alphabet,

to quell the character-assassinating, brick-baiting hate.

Let me hit them back with words instead of bricks,

by utilizing A-B-C-D-E-F-G.

I’ll disarm them with vowels and consonants,

with the help of H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P.

I’ll build a mighty fortress with mortared words,

cementing them between Q-R-S-T.

I’ll shake the haters up by spilling through spelling,

U-V-W-X-Y-Z.

So, I used the alphabet to word-fortify against their attacks.

And I’ll admit, those bricks initially brought me to my knees.

But now I’m safe and sound, all bricked up within and without.

My safehold, all in ABCs.