Shut Up and Say Something

we come to this world armed with curiosity
and amazement
edit the unsent letters of my life into a one word statement
yes

yes
to romantic flashlight lit dinners when you run out of candles
to handles on pillows so you can hold on to your dreams
to the underdog dog sled teams that use angry cats instead of canines
to landmines filled with confetti

to the steady hands of friends that live like surgeons
operating on our broken hearts
building pacemakers from the spare parts of mercy
we spend most of our lives figuring out what we don't want

we haunt ourselves with regret
because we almost always bet the odds
we play it safe
we waste time wondering
what if we're wrong?
what if we fail? what if we lose? what then?

well
then you're a loser

but you're not alone
there's a legion of us that have been shot down
on a long enough timeline
everyone fails

there's an entire universe made up of the unsent secret crush emails
a hollow sky filled with the lost details of what it feels like to never know
because we go about our lives never having tried
feeling justified in our 'what if' excuses

what if he, she, they, them, that, it
what if it didn't?
and I ask
what if it did?

the kid in me says yes to everything
the love in me says
shut up and say something

Shane Koyczan