journals

The thing about new journals

is that they have to earn your trust.

The old ones gained it long ago

after months of awkward sentences,

and maybe some tears as well.

Over the years, the pages became familiar,

off-white, ink smeared memories.

But this new one still seems questionable.

It might lose your words.

You can’t quite rely on these pages.

If you happen to write too close to the edges,

the words may fall off the paper

and into the cracks of couches and pews

eventually found by a stranger

who won’t appreciate or understand them.

And it may not take you seriously either.

What if it laughs at you?

Doubling-over, flipping open, and sending words flying

in all different directions,

landing on people and in places,

making you embarrassed.

Maybe, though,

we should give it the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe it will be faithful,

and sit quietly on desks and passenger seats

next to full coffee cups,

waiting for your honesty, patiently

like a good journal would.

Appreciating your heart in word form

holding it captive,

keeping it safe,

and reflecting it back to you.

poem by me

idea from teysha