Right Speech (poem)

Right Speech

Take the A of abstinence, allowing

is not aloud here

Aiming is outward

where goalward is autonomy

Doubt-free disinterest to approaches

of tempters, not achieved without the inwardest of ears

Or absentest, aural grasping through vibration, of impact

Always speaking knowing what you mean, but

Can you hear yourself taken from all angles

You are in a space of floors falling

Thrown on sudden defense, lying

Lifting to your feet, debris in hand

Your thought, I didn’t say a word

What is innocence, then, to abstinence

when it proves itself so violable

why is malleus, Latin for hammer

so similar to malus: evil, malice

but malleable yet is innocence, not a skeleton

supporting flesh, but air

our character dodges the blow and is no longer pure

And shaken by this fear

we tell untruths or shout them

fake innocence by laying guilt

on every idle question

eightfold path

Right Understanding

(2025, Stephanie Foster)