The Truth

the truth is sometimes hard to tell
the words don't come
the syllables stutter and shift
the wanting turns to mutters
half heard admittance and sighing
sometimes the truth hurts the most to keep in
to keep quiet and tiny in the innermost heart
these things, these sighs, these words
all that are supposed to be said
catch in throats and tumble half formed
from lips that seek to suck them back in
as if they never were
this truth, this hope, this thought
the words don't come out in the right order
emotions inform reality
the tongue stumbles like high heels in the cracks
of a sidewalk on a busy street
what belongs to one can be breathed out
in honesty unrepentant
the price, the cost, the damnation of a perhaps
the constant fear of words
the things lips try not to say
those concepts too much unformed to birth
into this vague world of chances
what must be said, this honesty, the truth kept within
for fear of punishment
these little collections of noises given meaning
by ancient history
that history which built so much caution
this truth, what may never be told
something larger than life
lingering on the tip of a tongue
resting against the cage of teeth
behind lips that seek to stop and catch the tumbling words
to take back the voicing of a perhaps,
a desire, so much more than wanting
but the truth is sometimes hard to tell
this truth, with these consequences, with this perhaps
the tumbling words appear like swords
these sighs, these words, what could be worse
than these lips that seek to halt the passage of knowledge
but instead spill the truth
like water from a glass
this perhaps takes flight
but does the flight soar
can the wings of truthful speech
not be halted by the simple sigh and closing teeth
of a tiny choice
to save the truth for late at night
when nothing stirs and the speaker speaks to the stillness
alone with honesty
for sometimes the truth is hard to tell
when the words are yet too unformed to birth
and the listener sees the world through eyes
that cannot yet understand
a perhaps too early said.


(c) 2015