I hadn’t written a poem in over twelve years when yesterday I was inspired to do just that. What follows is a poem about lovers and friendships and all human interaction. For me, it’s about how silence is far more damaging than true conflict and how by trying to preserve someone else’s feelings, you make an enemy of them.
Many of my friendships and relationships have unfolded this way. For those of you, like me, who dislike conflict, I challenge you to tell your friend their breath smells bad—politely, of course. I challenge you to tell your wife that something about her drives you nuts, or that you disagree with her on some fundamental level. Trust is the freedom to be honest about what is going on in your heart. If you cannot tell your friend or lover what you feel, if you don’t feel safe, then tell him or her that.
Don’t make your best friend your enemy. If you do, you’ll suffer the worst kind of pain: the kind where honesty isn’t permissible.
- Sunny Days
The foe not crossed on sunny days
or days less sunny still.
Cursed smiles abound
to appease her—or me—
with arms not in hands
daggers in silences grow.
In silence each bled to death;
a thousand cuts endured.
Not for love or lust or fidelity
but for sunny days in trust.
Trust not abound in silences
nor smiles nor sunny days nor promises next.
Though it did and does rain,
trust died here in the fear of getting wet.
And each does lie and die
in smiling silence,
as smiling, crying take each their
beloved as their foe.
Here on sunny days.
