iwish

I wish you would please listen
To these words I have to say,
Don't search for a response
Just sit and listen anyway.

Try not to take my voice
And find in it a place to blame,
Or seek of a rebuttal
To make it about you again.

I wish that just this once
You'd clear out all your other thoughts,
Make room to hear my pain
Find out the reasons I feel lost.

These words aren't meant to hurt
But give instead a sense of why,
Each time in which we talk
Tears damn near flood into my eyes.

I wish there wasn't fear
Milling in droves within my heart,
Afraid when I do speak
You'll forget words right from the start.

Then I'll have to repeat
Oftentimes twice or many more,
My voice soon tends to fade
Slapped in the face by your slammed door.

I wish you didn't know
About so many others' lives,
Or of their intimate details
Which cut through me like burning knives.

Cause when you're asked about
Details in which pertain to me,
You say that you don't know
Then yet again I feel unseen.

This final wish I pray
Would be a gift priceless from thee,
Not built of dollar signs
It'd be your gift of listening.

By: Debra Brent
09/17/2021

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