And I listen.
An all-active act of fierce conversions to turn air into electrical charges telling me to listen to you.

Both of us were silent,
But our eyes were still speaking.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
That's the saying isn't it?
To not let the words of someone else get the better of you?
But how can you not let them get the best of you when they haunt you daily?
How can you ignore them when they are lurking right around the corner?

We want to believe that the cushion to our wound will always be there for us no matter what.
We want to believe that there will be someone by our side through it all.
But it's the words that we use that can do the exact opposite of what we want.
Words make people leave
Words can make people stay
Words define how we live and who is involved in it.

Nothing is said without an intention,
It may not be direct but it will do damage.
Damage that could either be fix with more words or damage that will stay forever wounded.
Words cause the hurt that surrounds us today
Words cause the joy that we are all addicted to

So the next time you use the words you have been blessed with,
Think
Just think long and hard
And then, just then may you say what could very well dictate your future.

Why do I care what you think
or how you feel about what I say or do?
Should I, especially at my age?
But is not interaction itself the mutual influencing of behavior?
So when I speak to you and you to me
we are changing each other
just as the morning breeze bends the young Chinese Tallows
shaking each spring leaf as if to say, “Wake up tree, its time to grow!”
and the Tallow whispers, "Blow winds blow."
Caring just means I am human
and in spite of everything
I am glad about that.

To the God which determines the lifetime of Poets i ask,

let all the poets die with their hearts no longer on their sleeves;

but finally in their throats.
so in our final moments
all the words never written
can, at last,
be spoke.

you wasn't ready
to
communicate what i really felt
you
were to much rawness
not enough
sharpness
just words thrown at paper in anger and sadness and a desire to finally get them out

i wasn't prepared to fix you up
because i'm in no position
to tell you how to be made right.

so in my spare time
after a days studying
i stand on the pulpit
and talk to an empty room
shouting into the corners all the words i have written for people
who are not listening

like therapy i record these speeches
and play them back to remind me of the flow
of words
that could fill chalkboards whiteboards and lecture notebooks
but carry no weight

sometimes pray that the room is being captured
so someone can tell me to go
or perhaps the security guard finds some satisfaction
in seeing a heart unable to say no

Breaths come in and out
Our open mouths -
But this time you gasp
And grasp
For the words to speak instead
As they form inside your head.