Stage Fright

You cannot stand to stand in front anymore
(This is why you left the stage:
Those bright lights illuminating
Each freckle lit up in a singular spotlight
On your face reflecting back into the crowd)
Filling their eyes: it terrifies you

You do not want to be witnessed
(Though it pains you to be ignored)
You do not want your heartbeat echoing
Filling the space & reverberating
Back into your own ears, your eyes
Are closed from your reflection
& the sounds are too blaring
(Though your whispers can never be heard)

& one day something will happen
Showing you as a person, a being of noise & light
& you might run from it
(Or you might glow brighter, speak more clearly)
Leading others to your lively body
& your proud pulse, refusing to skip a beat

(For how can you live
If your light does not reach the retina
& fill eyes to make you appear)
Without it you would not be sighted
& that absense is a fate worse than death:
To be, & never be seen
To be, & never be heard