A Truth

Sometimes the worst parts of ourselves
Are the parts that everyone wants us to reveal
Because everyone wants to feel  
That they are not alone  
That what they feel is known, and understood
And that amidst this cacophony  
Of voices telling us to hide it all away  
We stand tall and say  
“We are not okay.  
We’re not alright.”  
 
And as our words take flight  
And grace the ears of those still fighting to hold it all in  
We realize that righting a wrong    
Is sometimes as simple as admitting to a long held secret  
That was never meant to be kept.  
 
All the while the world slept,  
Keeping secrets we all knew and understood  
But yet feared to reveal  
For fear of making noise or losing poise  
By admitting to the tears that we cried  
Or the times that we tried to end our pain.  
 
This shame, brittle and immovable as it appears,  
It is not ours.  
It is not ours to take our fears as truth  
And give them ammunition  
To attack our conviction    
That we are worth fighting for,  
That our words are worth hearing  
That everything we are fearing  
Is not all there is;  
That there is more.  
 
You are not the sum of your parts  
There is no number to count  
The measure of your heart    
Or the worth of your mind.  
These are not materials that can be amounted or measured  
But are treasured for their insurmountability.  
 
So I won’t deny my accountability;  
I’ll hold this to be true and none else  
That it is not wrong to say  
That sometimes the dawn seems far away.  
That doesn’t mean it’s true,    
Or that it’s what we really believe,  
But sometimes to find reprieve    
We need to relay how far our minds can stray.  
 
But so often we’re so scared of how much we need to be heard  
That we don’t say anything at all.  
And when the chips begin to fall  
We see how it could have been mended  
If we hadn’t just pretended everything was fine  
If we had just crossed that line  
And realized it was okay to admit to being broken,  
That maybe letting ourselves say it  
Would leave the door open for others.  
 
And maybe that could be our reason to keep going  
Always knowing that this will pass, this will end.  
And if we lend each other the courage to speak up  
Maybe then it will be enough for us to realize this fact:  
That even though we all hear that voice  
Calling out for us to be silent,  
We all have a choice  
Whether or not to be compliant.  
 
So the next time that voice is holding you back  
From telling someone you’re under attack,  
You turn and you make this decision  
To stand up to your fear and tell it:  
“I hear you,  
But I don’t have to listen.”