By: William Ellis

Could have
Would have
Should have
I was silenced.
My vocal chords were slashed.
My voice was kept in a jar for them to mock.
I never consented to their little childish experiment.
Who said it was ok to cage me like an insect for you to watch like a toddler?

But I live with yesterday’s bruises and today’s grocery list.
What if these shadows on the cave wall are all Plato wrote?
What if the best days are the ones we just survive?
Time doesn’t throw her secrets on the floor.
I’ll have to wait for the answers to flow through the wise waters of her mouth.