Maulana on Unsplash
Your words are brave
But the thickness of your voice reveals your pain.
I hear your unsaid wish.
For I, too, seek reprieve
From the tyranny of unkind thoughts.
I feel the leading edge of crash and burn
And choose, instead, firm lashing
To the mast of my own courage,
Deaf to the falsity of self-destructiveness.
But you have a twilight look about you,
As if you are barely here,
As if the road unwinds before your eyes
And you project mirages to protect your core.
I prefer to smile,
Though I confess,
It's been a while
I've lived with less.