I learned how to talk, not when I was 2 or 3
Not just putting sounds together
Not building sentences from scratch
Or repeating what I heard
Or scratching letters on pages with a pencil too big for my hands
Just so I can see what it is that I say
No, I didn’t learn how to talk
Until I realized that what I say actually has meaning
This didn’t happen when I was child
When my mother read me stories every night before bed
Listening eyes wide ears open lost in another world
No, I learned how to talk when I was 17
When I saw that my words hold more power than I ever imagined
And learned that words can change lives
For better or worse
I spent the first 17 years of my life just learning how to talk
Now I have the rest of my life to figure out what it is that I have to say