Learning to speak

A silent child

Good girl when quiet

Dark and wild

Eyes open wide

To take in as much of the world as she can

To try to understand

Still confused why

Silence

Marked her as a victim

But she endures

even when goaded past it

Survives

In silence,

But she remembers her words.

Young woman trusting their words

Over hers

but she learns the words had worms in them

The shiny apples that were rotten inside.

Now she can’t to believe it will be all right

she’s safer outside of the light,

But she remembers her words…

They won’t stay in darkness

Her words

Words that excite, delight

That cause change, rearrange

I found my voice no choice

Than to speak out loud to the crowd

To strangers to friends

must make amends

For not setting the words free all those years.

For not trusting myself

What I see

What I heard

in my heart

And my words

Angry words,

Righteous words

Kind words,

Indignant words

Loving words

Words that emerge

From my throat

rusty from being held back too long

Words thru my mind like the whispers of water thru pipes in the wall

Words present

but hushed like snowfall

Paralyzed and frozen

They gathered in drifts behind my lips

and teeth

pushed out in a gush on the wind of my breath

Stumbling from my mouth like drunken gladiators

Warriors trained to fight

Who incapacitated themselves out of fear

All those years

But now they won’t stop

They drag me to the spotlight

They won’t be silenced

I’ve got to speak my truth.

To make it right.

Because not everyone is the same,

the words that came to my lips

Lamed

After they tripped over everyone’s expectation’s

Seared themselves into my brain

Now I remember my words.

and say them to the crowd

out loud

Plowing through the disbelief

I find the relief

to the one face out there,

I speak,

to you,

You and I are a pair,

and you

makes three.

You and you and you and you

and me

are not the same

But we stand together and speak truth for her

Slipping in the lines that will give courage to the next

young heart

Who is

Silent

Still confused why

To try to understand

To take in as much of the world as she can

Eyes open wide

Dark and wild

Good girl when quiet

A silent child

Learning to speak

Remembering the words