‘Twas such a little hurt,
exposed to the dirt.
A splinter in a finger –
a wound so small
it shouldn’t have mattered at all,
nothing over which to linger.

For days there was no pain.
Then soreness it began to gain,
soon followed by streaks of red.
Though small enough to ignore,
all the while more and more
the damage spread.

Pus now gathered at the site,
indicative of the fight
raging between his host cells
and toxic bacterial proteins.
Attacking with all bodily means,
he couldn’t this infection dispel.

After the bacteremia began,
chills and fever wracked the man.
Next hospitalization came;
antibiotics were added to the fight,
germs versus man throughout the night.
With morn came death. What a shame!

A small splinter under the skin
had let a poisonous process begin
that sealed his body’s fate.
With the mind it’s much the same,
when we let fester and let remain
mind splinters like bigotry and hate.