By Wes Civilz

Human under observation is suffering from an “insult”—
a verbal exchange with another human
that has inserted a nugget of dark information
firmly into one of the sub-surface personality cores.

Interestingly, the insult has, on the quantum level, a shape
related fractally to the central pieces used in the game
called “darts.” Pointy and missile-shaped. Capable
of lodging deeply, if aimed with skill.

Upon pointy end of insult it should be noted
there are “barbs,” similar to those on hooks
used for fishing (these enable ease
of entry and difficulty of removal).

After several observations, I note that
the most effective insults are those that are true.
False claims are much more easily processed
by the ego’s immune system, and dumped from memory.

Specifically, this human was told
he is “dumb.”
Note that this insult referred to
his lack of intelligence

rather than its older meaning-layer
of non-speaking (although it could be interesting
to at some point analyze the connection,
if any, between stupidity and muteness).

This human suffers internally
because he was assigned the word dumb
and the word matched lock-and-key
with the fact that he is indeed dumb.

Upon observing him again
some days later, he has failed to discover
the hidden intelligence boost
contained within the quantum dart of the insult.

I will spend no more time
observing this specimen;
he is sad,
entropic.

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Wes Civilz lives deep in the forests of New Hampshire, which are lovely but have ticks. He posts micropoetry on Instagram under the handle @wes_civilz, and his work has appeared in such journals as The Antioch Review, The Threepenny Review, and Arts & Letters.