You Know How
–Ellen Hopkins

Sometimes you hear a whisper
fall over your shoulder,
but then you turn to search

for the source, find nothing
but landscape behind you?

So then you tell yourself
it was just a case of hyperactive
imagination, convince

yourself that sentiments
don’t materialize out of thin air.

But the truth, at least as I like
to tell it, is that the voices
who speak to you from inside

your head have taken up
permanent residence there.

Some shout warnings, prodding
you to take cover, flee,
or brandish a weapon.

Others murmur, haunting
you with poetry.

Like me.

Photo by Jarek Jordan on Unsplash