Compensation
by jess via dee - Inverse Times Wednesday, Feb 13 2019, 10:23pm
international / poetry / post

they thought me slow as a child
due to my inability to express myself
verbally

like climbing cliffs and rocky ledges,
pausing, stumbling, waiting for words that flow
like rivers from my pen without a thought

from past life mistakes and abuses my mouth fails to utter
fluently and with eloquence, yet by way of compensation
any textual inscriber, pen, brush, stylus or keyboard dance with my fingers,
wrists and hands

i am confined to silence purposely, the pen soothes and rages
according to what it wishes to encode and my mouth continues to stall on everyday words

is it a curse, magic or both?
whatever is taken away is balanced by another facility,
fortunate is the poet that allows the pen to do the writing
and cursed is the mouth that cut hearts and lives to the quick

i now know why and it pains me, so i allow it to flow out of my fingers lest i choke on my own
acerbic poison,
to harm with such a weapon is unforgivable and so that weapon
is no longer available
the tongue has two sides like a sword tho soft, yet is cuts sharper
than a scalpel

now in silence do i communicate clearly and easily
though i have learned that the tongue should only sing praises and bring joy
to others --

the vagus connects the heart to the tongue
so use with extreme caution lest you too harm yourself

https://inversetimes.hopto.org/news/story-472.html