Day 743: Nay Ransome

you are a reminder of a voice i carry inside of me
something i've tucked under my skin
folded into my back pocket for safe keeping
i chase it away some nights
because i am terrified of what i might say
that it may bring me closer to some kind of understanding
as it is, i am comfortable with the questions i am left with
from avoiding the kind of streets that look like they should carry answers

the first time i heard you spit
i wanted to show you how to lift your cuffs from your wrist
to leave a little more room for your heart to breathe
i could see parts of your chest forcing its way to freedom
i wanted to write down the lines that hit me like arrows
and fly them in your direction
wanted to tell you that you are changing so much of me
just by breathing
i dont know you well enough to be writing this
but
i selfishly see parts of me under your skin
there are songs i've sung
never knowing the reasons
that it seems you've unhinged
i want to know how you've found this conviction
this strength
and why its terrifies me to the bone
leaves me speechless

you are the kind of voice i know i was born to protect
the kind of poem i wish i had written myself
but i do not make masterpieces everything i old is plagued with need for improvement
i cannot claim your brilliance
cannot pretend to know your struggles
to have seen you broken and rebuilt
and yet
i know its happened
cuz i recognize the look in your eye
its of a woman who will not fail
a woman who's heart searches to be broken knowing she will be rebuilt
stronger than ever
these are the lives we have been given to live
you wear it like i banner
i've worn it like a secret

but here is the kicker
the promise
i will continue to write poems for girls who have never learned
or forgotten the taste of an honest poem
how it flies off the tongue like it never belonged there in the first place
as long as you continue to prove to me
that there are girls like me
like us
somewhere across the ocean
over the rainbow
that write
not because they love it
not because its right
but because their lives depend on it
because our lives depend on her
because we all depend on you
"the world needs people like us. to not become our potential would be so selfish"