How do you learn speak
When the world is kneeling on your windpipe
Crushing your voice before it can slip past your tongue
Through broken teeth and bloody lips
Unimportant, insignificant, invalid.
I am told what I say holds no value
So I shouldn't say anything at all.
I am told my opinions are worth less then the ground I walk on
Much like my thoughts, my ideas and opinions
I am told it is better to keep silent
I have the right to freedom of speech
But how can I feel free when I'm told my words are a curse
Driving others away
If I only learned to stay quiet maybe people would learn to stay.
Every breath I breathe is the whisper of a phrase
Caged in my chest crying out for an escape
Words bang against my rib cage and collide in different ways
But I can't say what I need to say
Those words are locked away
Only I don't hold the keys
My voice box is a storage unit for words unsaid
Abandoned at the bottom of an abyss in my throat
I am told it is better to keep silent
But how can living with regret for what I didn't say
Be any worse than living with regret for what I did?
How can I validate my opinions
When you won't give me the chance?
How can I tell you it hurts
When your knee is buried in my throat?
How can I learn to speak?
When you are silencing me?
