Speak Freely
On the conversation you wish you'd had — and the small lesson we keep failing to learn from it.
For the people we lost without finishing what we wanted to say. And for everyone we still get the chance to.
If I had known it’d be the last time
Maybe I could’ve said more
So you knew how I felt; no doubts
Why hadn’t I expressed this before?
If we could have just one more talk
Oh the things I could have learned
You were the embodiment of wisdom
Perhaps discipline is what I’ve earned
Now I want to make you proud
Because you always believed
When I didn’t believe in myself
You lived a life many wish they could achieve
We’re often too naive
Too wrapped up in our lives
To realize our time together’s short
So speak freely, and from the heart
The lesson always arrives after the test. The poem ends with the only practical takeaway: speak freely, and from the heart. Not later. Not when it’s safer. Now.
— JTC