Poem: I Want to Tell You What I Think

I Want to Tell You What I Think

but it scares me,
not the telling,
but what will come after.
I do not know 
that you will listen,
do not believe it will be heard.
You tell me now
you care and want me to speak up,
but that has been true before.
I have spoken up before
and you waved your hands through the air
as if my words were only a bit of smoke
to be wafted away.  It will be that way again.
I do not want to pretend it is different.
I do not want to let you pretend, either.

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