The Inner Voice

Stillness reveals our voice.

Only breath and heartbeat

heard.

Not the voice meant for

others,

but the one ruling our

ability

to create and decide.

Do I walk away from my

career?

Will retirement shape into

what I’ve intended?

It whispers in crevices,

brain chattering

heart slowing and speeding

its rhythm.

Gnaws in my belly,

yet I move forward

queasy.

A heartbeat that pierces

instead of pumps

as I go

when I want to stay.

Irrational: I will go broke, be

bored, lose my mind.

Reasonable: it will be fine,

this is what I saved for.

I can take my writing

and animal advocacy to a

higher level.

I hear me screaming, quiet,

deafening,

all of them at once.

Friend, foe, therapist,

attacker.

Captor and savior.

Thoughts of worth and of

praise…

both dismissed by the

restless doubtful mind.

The crowd speaks so loud

it’s hard to find my one true

voice,

the one that will take root

and bloom into the next

phase,

flourishing in passion to

share.

I am all of them, none of

them,

dependent on the one

I allow to speak the

loudest,

the one I choose to

nurture.

All are planted.

Not all should grow.

—FromTenderGround🧡