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# Speaking in the Face of Fear
- URL: https://www.vesperapress.com/speaking-in-the-face-of-fear/
- Published: 2017-08-25T23:25:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-06T14:38:33.000Z
- Author: Meri McGuire McConn
- Tags: Oceans of Mine, #Poetry, #Letters, #Philosophy and Truth, #Family

Say it to me again, yet again  
Those words that drip with fiery ice  
Squawk, tear at me due to hidden pain  
Tell me calm words are not so nice  
  
Tell me, you who would teach me again  
Tell me, again, that I speak too much  
When I speak my heart, though perfectly plain  
When I utter no nonsense, and offer a crutch  
  
Say it to me, heart’s love, just one more time  
Those words no one can stand to hear  
Those cruel words of your stain’ed mind  
Whispering echoes of your darkest fear  
  
Loose on me your deep regrets  
Charged heavily with your father’s voice  
Sing to me pained refrain, don’t forget  
When I speak truth, my deep heart’s choice  
  
But ‘t’were coddling words you wanted to hear  
Since speaking true words is your greatest fear  
And hearing truths unbidden, a dastardly crime  
Though untruths claim your life time after time  
  
I learned: Strangling my voice was my only vice  
From the one who enacted my crime-not-so-nice  
We don’t get to choose truths or to cut grafts and splice  
Else you’d be as that one was, a true accomplice  
  
So, don’t tell me, aged one  
Words of honey sweet  
Can undo what one has done  
While I stand on my feet  
  
And please grasp: I’m not uncouth  
Nor you, I chastise  
If I can’t shut my mouth  
I just don’t compromise  
  
Still lauded as smart  
I stand up for myself  
I am true to my heart  
Don’t put it on a shelf  
  
So please, don’t slap me down like the child you feel  
When I’m offering words, if you’d take, that might heal  
But your ego is great and your fear overtakes  
And we both lose our tempers, make horrid mistakes  
  
Do you think, for a second, if I’d listened to you  
If I’d shut my mouth tight, as you demand that I do  
That I’d not be so brandished in life as I’ve been?  
I promise you, I did; felt fists time again  
  
So, you beg that I stop  
But I promise, I shan’t  
It’s a choice that I make  
Even if love is scant  
  
Understanding takes all but a moment, my dear  
Understanding that love sometimes mixes with fear  
Understanding that truth is truth, despite what you take  
Understand vocalizing is a choice we each make  
Understanding comes whether we like it or not  
But choose not understanding, all chances are shot  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
And now, you have but a memory close  
And I shan't give you lectures  
We've each had our last dose  
All through fissions and fractures  
We lose love and lose time  
And you're not even likely  
To read this last rhyme