The Inner Voice That Does Not Want To Displease The World Poem by RIC BASTASA

i have my own voice
but i am not a good singer as you

and so i keep this voice
only for myself and i begin to speak
silently

only to myself for i am not pleasing
at all for
the world

it is a sad voice
it is filled with envy and regret

it is a silent voice
and yet so restless as a traffic noise

it is contained and restrained
afraid to displease the whole world

it frees itself from its throat and roams
the confines of the mouth

it speaks silently for itself
on the letters of an ink on the hardness of the teeth