Logophobia is, of course, merely one

of many morbid dreads but the fear of words

or, rather, one in particular

seems like an epidemic currently

in the chancelleries and newsrooms

of the Global North, rendering the patients,

at best, silent, about the destruction

of two nations – one from without, one

from within, one becoming a pariah,

and receiver of bushels of stolen wheat,

one an object of universal pity,

where some are starving, plagued by rats and fleas

–  and, at worst, being actively complicit

in self-righteous exceptionalism,

in extravagant conspiracies,

in multiple crimes against humanity.

Unlike the H word, for example,

‘Hypocritical’, or the M word,

‘Mendacious’, or even the I word

‘Islamaphobic’, or the U word

‘UnChristian’, it is the modern version

of the public shame of being branded

with a scarlet letter A, the new version

of the career-ending terror of being

labelled a Commie, the fear of being called

‘Antisemitic’.