Glossophobia

Glossophobia

By Kelly Grace Thomas

74% percent of the population suffers from Glossophobia,

or the fear of public speaking.

Which means 3 out of 4 of us, find a microphone, captive audience and the chance to speak up,

more intimidating than spiders, chemical warfare or dying alone.

That people full of thoughts, so electric they could power the Los Angeles skyline,

hearts so big they make oceans look like rain puddles.

 would rather die

 muted,

wrapped in a silence

pregnant with poetic low tides and blue Julys.

You will never know what having a tongue really feels like

 if you always keep your mouth shut.

Learn to pronounce the truth.

This muscle, with the power to taste and kiss

and speak

and speak,

needs bravery as much as it does blood.

Words can be heroic.

Way too many unclaimed feelings live in the small town of fear.

Tongues should not be kept prisoners, starved of purpose

Who taught us to

hold them,

bite them,

quiet them?

And what do they have to say now?

Maybe if we weren’t so silenced

teenagers wouldn’t use spray cans as voices,

screaming on city walls, so someone, anyone knows they were there.

Maybe if adults weren’t so scared of saying how they feel,

the cancer would stop winning,

the mirror wouldn't feel like razor blades

and there wouldn't be so many “I-wish-I-hads”

 piling up in the backyard

without a hole deep enough to bury them in.

Maybe it was taken by the tooth fairy, when you unpacked shame for lunch

embarrassed to smile with a mouth full of holes.

Maybe it was at a homecoming, when the person asked to slow dance

wasn’t you,

that you learned this waltz of disappearing,

shrinking into a whisper.

Maybe it was when someone weaker or smaller than you

asked for some answers

and the words “I don’t know” felt so dirty and small

that you forgot how to speak.

Maybe.

But mountains once stood tall before they feel to pieces.

To survive we must scream in the quietest places.

Just because the evening news has taught us to be afraid

doesn't mean we can’t change the channel.

Learn to broadcast you.

To tell a room, the town, the world

“this is me, all of me and I don't give a shit if you like it.”

I’m fearful of a generation that cares more about how

they look in a selfie, than finding a cure.

That things like social justice and ambition

have become just another background to pose in front of.

We need to open our mouths.

To build or create.

To find the perfect words that  

spackle with syllables.

That hammer with hearth ache.

I want you to ask yourself

when was the last time you were brave?

When was the last time you woke up in the morning and slipped on some strong,

 because you liked the way you looked in it?

Being afraid doesn’t make you original or unique.

So please stop starting sentences with the word sorry.

 Do not apologize because you don’t agree.

 Or wait for a revolution to come to you.

Chance sits on your door step,

but first you need to go outside.

It’s funny that 75% percent of us are so convinced

that we are not important enough to pay attention too.

That we are scared of the spotlight and all that comes with it.

But how will be ever be able to see how beautiful you truly are,

if we never turn on the lights.