Unwrap me.
Strip me of this vessel.
Shake this bottle,
this container,
until the insides bubble up.
Challenge my everything.
Yell.
Scream.
Cry out your battlecry.
I will do the same,
matching your tone,
copying your voice.
I will do the same
until I can no longer speak.
I will best you
in this contest of screams
until I feel the redness in my cheeks.
I will shake the mountains
with my voice alone.
Every word I say
sets a landmine off,
so let the explosions come.
I have so much more to say.

There's so many things I want to say to you
Things that bother me or that are on my mind
Yet it always seems like the wrong time
Or that I won't be able to convey my thoughts
They way they float around in my head.

I'm afraid you'll convince me that I was wrong to think them.
That I was stupid or selfish to want this or that.
It's not like you're a mean person, or controlling.
You just make a lot of sense when you talk.
So when I talk and don't seem to make a lot of sense,
You let me know. Usually nicely.
Occasionally you don't though.
And it  makes me not want to say anything at all.

So I end up thinking about them a lot more.
Convincing myself that if I think about them a lot
I won't mess up the words I rehearsed so many times.
But frankly, my communication muscle is just very weak.
And the times when I need it most
Are the times it's hardest to use.

I long to talk freely and eloquently,
To know what it's like to have logical thoughts
Which come out all in a row
Like soldiers marching to their own drums.

Until then, I stay quiet. Thinking.

Shhh, quiet down.
I hate those sounds,
That escape your mouth.
Keep them locked inside.
I'm begging for silence,
From the monsters around me.
Please stop thinking.
I can't stand the words.
That are filling my ears.
They're truly my fears.
You've caused them to be.

How exciting it must be
To sit and talk and talk at me
And never hear a nervous squeak
When they should want to leave.

I know the process that you think
The way you throw the kitchen sink
That leaves both minds upon the brink
I'll really have to leave, I think.

And so I stay three hours more
As you follow us from store to store
You talk and talk, it is a bore
I will soon leave, of that I'm sure.

You force your thoughts on us again
You don't know but you speak up then
Half and half so much you spend
So I will leave or 'round the bend.

My heart is beating in my chest
My feet are sore, far from their best
I need to have a long, long rest
Oh my, I am so glad I left.