In celebration of National Poetry Month, Bent Alaska presents “If I Dare Speak”, a poem from the pen of Annie Muse.

If I dare speak

by Annie Muse

If I dare speak from my truth
Will you in your bravery hear me?
If I speak to you out of brokenness and fear,
Prickly and unlovely,
Do I dare dream you could hold me?

Despite this! I present myself before you.
Shattered and stuttering.

I extend and open my hands toward you,
Two hands that had been in a position of prayer,
or maybe balled into fists.
Seated, facing me,
You take my hands in your hands,
and lower your head, directing your gaze into my palms,
And where you said you’d see my future,
You see our beating hearts.

[Written in January 2011]

Photo credit: Wanjiru’s hands. The weathered hands of Hannah Wanjiru, a slum dweller in Nairobi, Kenya, 1993. Photo by David Blumenkrantz (daveblume on Flickr). Used in accordance with Creative Commons licensing.