speechwritten

you can put your words
in my mouth
all you want, but
that doesn’t
make them true.

you can tell yourself
that you did the right thing,
that it’s for the best,
that all’s well that ends well,
till the cows come home.
that’s what cowards do
when the universe fails
to approve their fearful lack
of action.

newsflash: I will never
thank you for rejecting me.
I’ll be fine, I think –
and finally for the first time
I might believe it – but despite you,
not because of you, and
that rationale
is bullshit.

I’d always rather try
and act on the dream
and whatever hope there is of love
than let the chance
pass me by. I’d rather
blow on the coals,
and go up
in a furious blaze,
than sit back and watch
as the embers die.

I’d much rather try to fly, even
crash and burn
than leave the plane
idling and growing rust
in the hangar, and forever wonder
what might have been.

I see
this is yet another point
on which we disagree.