Every Thursday I share with you a poem I love or one I’ve written. Today’s poem is called The Way You Are and is about people who are hiding under layers of bravado and narcissism. I hope you like it.
The Way You Are
You say this is just the way
you are—to which I say no,
no way
the way you are
brings chaos
and destruction
and forces
people into
tears of dread
and regret, no way
the way you are
needs silence
to survive, no way
that is
how this works
who you are
is
hiding.
Strip off
the layers, strip down
to nothing, wear
what you wore before
you knew
how it felt to strip
someone else
of dignity, of power
of clothes, of
her innocence,
before you were told
the way
to come into your power
was to take it
from another
back to
when you
knew
the only way to be
the way you are is to
go home, to strip
yourself
down to nothing,
down to your roots
down under your boots
of bravado, your belt of
fury, your tightly-tied tie
of feigned
innocence
quit pretending to be
so dense
quit wearing your pants half-zipped
go all the way, take
off all your clothes
and there—see! STOP—that
you, that naked and shaking
you—that is who
you are,
so small, so unassuming,
so human, the big, amazing
oz… not
so much but
that is where you’ve
been hiding.
Hi Allison,
Beautiful poem. Compiling your poems into a book would be great for us readers.
Dennis