That whisper.
That whisper.
Distress.
Suppress.

That murmur.
That murmur.
Mortify.
Fortify.

That cry.
That cry.
Duress.
Redress.

This screaming.
This screaming.
Retreat.
Defeat.

A remark thought innocuous.
A look misperceived.
A slight stab twisting dignity,
magnified into distorted reality.

You’re underwhelming your gifts.
You shatter your own promise.
You needn’t aspire.
Hell, why challenge at all?

Who dictates consequence?
Who nullifies improvement?
Who barricades your ascension abruptly?
It’s not “them”.
It is nearly never “that”.

The fault would seem folly.
Most counterintuitive.
The assault isn’t from others, or from sources external.
It is much more familiar,
more sewn into the heart.

The problem springs from the well within.
Too often too deep.
Too dark.
Too foreboding.

The solution, far from simple.
Yet as simple as can be.

Unleash the voice beneath.
Rip away the muzzle that stifles.

And don’t you merely speak with that voice.

Shout with it!
Scream with it!

Exalt with it unbridled.

And if what is released
is not absorbed well without,
then be ever louder!

Be who you are harder.

And feel strength abounding.
And pride running free.

An expressive explosion
of a spirit sent soaring.

Of a soul beaten down no longer.