Listen.
Stop not listening.

I’ve been tapped.
Sap bleeds.
It stings where sweetness lives.

Give me your ears.
I’ll torch ‘em to caramel.
I don’t need your lips,
your yowls, your static.
But taste.

Just ******* syrup.

Your screech gnaws
at the stem of my melody.

Eat the fruit.
Chew the pit.

Explaining the me of me.
Always been detailed oriented
It’s who I am, it’s part of me.
I pound my chest
Try to get point across
Voice in earnest tone
I get offended
When accused
Of being defensive
My opinion,
On defense mechanism
Is that it is an
Explanation mechanism.
Defense goes up
When it seems
You won’t even listen
You say you hear
I say you do not hear, Hear
Rather, you turn your cheek
To my offering of just listen for once.

So, rather than
Defense accusations
Think in terms of my
Imparting to you who I am
My thoughts, my feelings.
I want you to know me
As I want to know you.

An idea, a conversation evolution
Open it to new possibilities.
Ask a question, make a statement
But…rather than answer initial
Point of subject
Go back, dig, become a reaper
What is reason the matter
Took spoken form?
Discover the prompt
Of initial point of discussion
And, talk about it.

Defending oneself
With defense mechanisms
Nor acccusations of defense
Is simply a dead end.
Why is it essential to
To send attack claiming
Defense, what is it in you
Cannot face?
Translating defense mechanisms
Into positive outcomes
By investigating the crux
Of the defense
By both individuals
Seems a more positive approach.
A defense of sorts on either side
Is just that,
Does not change a thing.

Just listen, rather than accuse.
Let me be heard
Just, please listen to hear, Hear.
I want me to be part
Of life’s prisms
To travel into the intricacies of being.
If not allowed to talk
To share my inner-most self
Staying locked in my self-prison
Is not where I want to be.

Listen -

no matter how impregnable
how tall the border wall
how faint their call
no matter how great the chasm
between you and them
between your point of view
between your world view
and where they have taken their pew

- Listen

don't write them off as blinkered
as closed minded, as none-so-blind
don't assume you're the more
twenty-twenty vision kind

- Listen

don't shame them or be all too ready to belittle them
don't be dismissive of them with no respect for them
and for what has led them and theirs
to their honestly held position

- Listen

assume their good faith and in a space that's safe
assume a position of good natured
mutual consideration and seek mutual revelation
of God-given wisdom

-Listen

And as you clear that common ground
you are bound to build a safer compound
a creator-shared hallowed ground
where the heard are found
while bound for wisdom –

together.

Seashells hold echos
Of life beneath waves
Hold one to your ear;
Listen, can you hear their story?

All of my demons stayed quiet
Because we all loved listening to you