For Giving Away My Words

Giving away my words. 

Breathing in and out, 

I find that I’m at a loss for words. 

Words, once, gave me power. 

Now they abandon me, 

and stop flowing, the way

the sand in an hour-glass empties, the way

the quill runs out of ink. 

I try to dip my quill in the ink, only 

to get a coat of white out. 

My words cower in fear and shrink away. 

and my paper remains blank. 

That’s what I did. 

Or,

maybe what you did. 

I and You reached in my voice and threw away my words—

tossed them into the middle of tear stained sentences.

Now,

I’m fishing in the middle of the lake,

hoping words will get caught on my hook,

so, I can drink in my words again. 

I’ll find what I lost,

what I gave away.

I’m trying to coax out my words from 

Hiding in the dark. 

Hiding in the light. 

Reassuring myself that I’ll find

what I lost,

what I gave away.

Tracing the shadows in the dark

makes them only shadows.

Reflections of what scares me

but they can’t touch me. 

My words are protected,

and they protect me. 

Slowly, 

I see 

Letter

by 

Letter

And 

Word

by 

Word

Forgiving with my words.