As my tone of thought grows firmer,
the dispiriting voices
with their barbed and stinging filaments
are exposed  –
there is less space for them to hide in semi-consciousness  –
they can no longer pose as part of me

No strings that could be pulled by foreign agents,
no voices that result in giving up,
no inclination to conceal a faulty motivation
will get to be presented as my thought

They are squeezed out
and I become more vigilant,
learning myself in the new strength that stays.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2023