Unreserved

 Unreserved

(“So I will not stay quiet. I will speak out in the suffering of my spirit. I will complain because I am so unhappy.” Job 7:11)

It’s all in your head.
They said.
Just turn off your brain.
Refrain.
And they disconnect the only living link
to a breath of fresh air that might keep me sane.

I am not playing.
Restrained.
My mind and body ache.
Piece of cake.
And I’ll shout into the sky if I have to;
dive off the pier and jump in the lake
to get a hearing from another living creature.

I’m not deserted.
Rehearsed.
Just misunderstood.
Unheard.
And they replace a caring touch with a cacophony
of sermons, prefab hymns, sanitized theology
that keeps doubts at bay and closes the way
to the soul’s deepest hunger.

Unreserved.