Bare

As if today wasn't everything I have,
memory trails encoded in neural webs,
flashes of light across synapses
illuminate moments,
feelings, places, times
I'd sooner forget.

Dare I squander another hour,
another minute of this
flash-in-the-pan existence
before  my energy is again strewn
across the expanse,
the void,
to drift nowhere,
out of time?

Dare I be afraid of speaking truth,
of emotions, of consequences,
to standing naked against the wind,
to shivers and goosebumps on skin,
dare I hide behind a gripping façade of shame?

No, no.
I have cowered in the shadows,
I have run from the now.
I know fear
and all of its companions;
I've tasted the blandness
of living suppression.

I have learned all I can
from the dark.