Does my honesty offend you?

Does my honesty offend you?

Are my words cutting too deep, past skin, past muscle and bone right into heart and soul.

Does my honesty offend you?

Laughing when you cry, stillness when you run, dancing while you cower.

Does my honesty offend you?

When I speak you cover your ears. You even run away as I draw near to you.

The fact that I’ve never said one word to you heralds resound.

Does my honesty offend you?

©Christopher F. Brown 2009

Does my honesty offend you by Christopher F. Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at http://pentopaperandfingertokey.blogspot.com/2009/08/does-my-honesty-offend-you.html.
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The Joke Is

I am not a joke.

When you saw me that first time, were you scared?

Did you see the scars on my head and face and want to cross the street?

Did you clutch your clutch just a little tighter?

I know you didn’t think I was cute or sexy. You might have a few years and pounds back.

Maybe you saw me that day and my clothes that were ragged and out of style and thought I was poor, or a crackhead, or something to that effect.

Maybe you wanted to laugh.

I warn you, I am no joke.

That day you came upon me laughing and smiling; being generally happy I could see in your eyes you thought,

“how unmanly, punkish even.”

I tell you how sorry I feel for you. While I continue to do and be me fully and completely what do you see?

When you look in the mirror what stares back at you?

When you put on the latest and buy the greatest I wonder if you ever wonder,

“why?”

When you spend extra for the super silky human hair, or make sure you’re the tips of your locks are the perfect red, or even spend thirty dollars on the perfect brush to make your waves come out just so. Do you ever wonder,

“why?”

I am not the joke

©Christopher F. Brown 2009

Shadow eyes

Shadows surrounding me; surrounding us all; holding our mysteries, our secrets, and our lies.

 

We know they are there and we choose to push them to the left, push them to the right, just push them wherever we can not see them. The problem is that we just can not push hard enough to push them away.

 

They move when we move, stay when we are still.

 

Have you ever looked at your shadow? If it had eyes to look at, to stare and peer into deeply what would the soul of the shadow be like? What would it feel like?

 

The soul of the shadow; is that the place where those corners and recesses lie? The soul of the shadow; is that where those thoughts and urges hide? Those urges deep in the soul of the shadows heart, those ones that “normal”, “law abiding”, “respectable” people do not mention in public or polite and casual conversation.

 

I’ll share a secret, when I think people are lying to me or when I meet new people for the first time I look them directly and deeply in their eyes. There are things there that the soul says that the mouth won’t (or are not allowed too.)

 

What if shadows had eyes?

 

Would I want to see those things that people hide from other people, even from themselves? Would I want to see the things that even a person’s soul does not want to acknowledge?

 

Thank God shadows don’t have eyes.

 

©Christopher F. Brown 2009