I was taught men do not need to be held so I learned how to stand still while waiting to fall. I was told strength meant silence, so I built a house of unsaid things and called it reason. When tenderness came, I called it weakness. When loss came, I called it conspiracy. When love came, I said I'd outgrown that kind of illusion. To be awake, I thought was to stop wanting what I could not bear to feel. And so, I tore down every door that led inward, each one labeled foolish by the man I hoped to become. I called this awakening but it was only sleep without dreaming. Inside, a child still whispered through the walls: teach me to be what I was not allowed to learn.
Thanks to @Lyrics and Fire for restacking this poem.
Grateful to @Geraldine A. V. Hughes, thank you, Lady G
My thanks to @Tim for sharing this poem
My thanks to @Yolanda D. for this restack
Thank you for sharing this, @Rolando Andrade
My pleasure Paul
Thanks to @Kathleen Hobbs at livetobehappy for this restack The boy feels much better now.
So happy to hear that Paul
Thank you, @Rea de Miranda—I appreciate the restack.
Thank you for this restack, @Lique
Good Wednesday, @Jo-Ann Petrarca, and thank you for restacking this.
You’re welcome
My thanks to @A. G. Giberson | Poet for sharing this poem
It was beautifully written!
Thank you—It is companion to another poem I posed recently titled “Reconciliation.”
I will go read that one!
Thanks to @Gayle Beavil, MA, BEd, CAPP 🇨🇦 for this restack
My thanks to @Jane Deegan for sharing this poem 🙏😊
You're welcome
Thanks for this restack, @David W. Zoll—much appreciated!
Good Wednesday, @Madison Riker, and thank you for sharing my poem 🙏😊
Grateful to @Blue Citizen 77 for restacking this poem, thank you, Diane 💙💙
My thanks to @Earl Nobdy for sharing this poem