Voice

To have a voice, to find a voice, to have
a choice to be able at last to sing
the song I did not know I had to sing,
to let my breath disturb the atmosphere

Incomprehensible to me is how
I came to find my way to free what was
imprisoned deep in me, always there,
patiently waiting and hesitating

how long I trembled in terror stuck there
on the verge of me, on the lips of me
before I let myself find the first note,
then the second, and then unstoppable

what was coming, insisting, persisting,
everything I am and know as I sing