Speak Plainly

[Berwick Bay]

Speak Plainly

Fear and gaiety,
To whom predators are drawn.
Destroying those poor
In spirit
Taking their own.
Silent watchers see
A savage display,
Unwilling to help,
Or enter the fray.

Spirits follow
From childhood born,
Mocking maturity, achievement,
Or established norm.
Seeking out fear
Like sugar, so sweet,
Looking for those
Still incomplete.

And so fully human,
But not fully grown,
Playground struggles
Thought banished, and gone,
Resurrected now from
Our soul’s sinew and bone,
Well up from within us
And claim us
As their own.

So unseemly now,
So unmanly,
Still children
We cry, for understanding.
Child, don’t wrestle
With phantoms or fears,
Turn away from them now
From this Funhouse of
Games and tears.
Speak what is right
To those who will listen,
Take your rest, find relief
From them,
They cannot hurt you.


So set them free
Send them into the swine,
Speak from a happy heart,
Just don’t give them the time.
Speak plainly,
With words
Settled and true,
Abandon the old,
Wring in the new.
Speak plainly I say,
Build not again upon
Flickering lights, and clinging images,
But instead upon
That granite bedrock of
Faith, Hope, and Love,
From which you came.