The Brand

There's a voice inside my chest, that only speaks when
the world goes quiet. It whispers run when nothing
is chasing me, says you're not enough, before I even try.

Fear knows my name. Knows every scar, every weakness,
every door I was too afraid to open.

Sometimes it screams so loud, I forget what silence
sounds like.

But somewhere underneath, beneath the shaking hands,
beneath the nights without sleep, beneath every what if
and every almost, there is another voice.

Small. Uncertain. But mine.
It says: Stay. Breathe. You are still here.

And maybe courage isn't the absence of fear.
Maybe it's walking forward while fear is screaming
in your ears. Maybe I don't have to silence it.
Maybe I just have to become, Louder than my fears.

So let them talk. Let them tell me. I'll fall.
I'll take one more step. Let them tell me. I'm not enough.

I'll become more than they ever imagined.
Let them scream. I am still here.
And for the first time, I can hear myself above them.