Speak

Remember those days
when you were wild.
Your heart open
and a bottle was never needed
to bring you to the surface
of a world
that begged for your existence.

Speak my child
in that tone you knew as
free.

Sing my child
in that voice
that wasn’t muffled.
Not in closed spaces
in cars racing at speeds
that the slightest glance
could kill you.

Forget my child
that you could ever
be killed.
You cannot be killed
except in those moments
when you sit quietly
with so much to say.

Speak.
And learn again
what it means to live.
You only kill yourself
in your silence.