Power of Words

If all the words you never said 

were gathered up together,

what would it look like?

Would it look like a pile

of household junk at the edge

of the curb, ready to be taken away

as if it no longer mattered to you?

Or could the weight of it drag you

down to the bottom of the river

or even an ocean?

If you opened an old jewelry box 

of all the words misunderstood,

how many necklaces of heart strings 

would you find tangled together?

How many times have your words

come out like spilled milk, by mistake,

knowing you can’t put them back into

the bottle, but can only clean up

your mess and wait for it to dry?

Do you ever let your words leave you

like the rays leave the sun,

casting light to even the darkest of souls?

Are your words like a reflection? 

A mirror of you looking down

at the surface of a lake, clear but dreamy.

Or do you close your eyes on the glass

of words that feel like a stranger?

Do you ever feel like your words

are a basement door to your heart?

Like whoever reads them, or hears them

is taking the stairs down to the deepest

part of your inner home.