Open Your Ears

It’s all there.
Cloaked as poetry,
Passed off as fiction.
A veil of deception
Because I’m too scared
To admit…
To admit it all.
The fear and profound emptiness.
The hopelessness unmasked
At this late hour,
Like a plot twist you never asked for.

I don’t worry for myself
But for the echo of me
Still held in your heart.
Let it go, let your ears train
On a new sound,
Faint and far away, but full of hope.

© 2021 Jeff E. Brown. All rights reserved.