I do not want
borrowed judgments,
handed down like worn coats
too tight in the shoulders
smelling of someone else’s fear
Do not tell me
who is pure
and who is poison
Let me sit with them
hear the silence between their words
watch how they treat
what cannot give them anything back
Truth arrives quietly
It does not shout reviews
It does not ask for witnesses
I learned this
after trusting once
without a map
I want to meet reality
without footnotes
without edits
without the fingerprints
of other people’s disappointments
Good and bad
are often just moods
traveling faster than facts
So let me arrive empty-handed
without praise in one pocket
and warning in the other
Let me see
with eyes untrained by rumor
feel
without rehearsed conclusions
If I am mistaken
let it be my mistake
If I am moved
let it be honestly
I choose lived truth
over narrated truth
presence over projection
experience over echo
Let me meet reality as it is
not as it has been edited
good or bad
by others
I let what is
speak for itself
