Hello? Does anyone know I'm here?
What has happened over the years
that makes my cry fall on deaf ears?
Breaches of trust have taken their toll,
circumstances of life covering my mind
until I've become more and more invisible.
Help! It's me! Under the layers of theatrical paint
of learned behaviour and performance duties.
I'm here! Bright and alive, vibrant and acute!
But self-concealment has put me on mute.
Others deem it necessary to tell of their pains as
I give them permission to off-load and declutter.
I'm a good listener to their secrets and dreams
while my mind still has its own silent screams.
Anxiety, depression and lingering grief
crowd my mind some days without much relief.
Mustn't let on, keep up the charade
of a middle-aged woman caught up in the parade
of life as we know it,
no deviations allowed to be voiced.
O lash me to the mast! So I don't drown in self-pity
or die in a hail of judgmental bullets flung my way.
Either could do their dastardly deeds
of further damage to this dear soul.
Then a Voice of 'fear not!' It's the Captain of my ship!
'Just be willing to be willing
to leave this hidden cove, it's time!'
So I set my course thus voluntarily secured,
with the Divine compass pointing
to where I can make landfall on Authenticity.....
This is a dverse poets prompt to write a poem from 'a place of pain'. I penned this poem many years ago when I was middle-aged. I did indeed bleed words onto paper at the time. Today, as a seventy year old, I can look back and recognize that woman who was in so much pain at the time and yet I know she is more at home now on the land of Authenticity than ever before...
Here is the Link: A Place of Pain