Words
Flowing freely
Smoothly from your mouth
Easily, effortlessly you speak.

Words
Choppy and broken
Blocked and stuttered from my mouth
Struggling, I speak.

How?
How do you speak
Without struggle,
Without effort?

Why? Why must it be hard
For me to speak
And my words be scarred?

What? What must I do
To speak, to talk
As effortlessly as you?

When?
When will it end?
I need my words
I need them to mend.

So many questions.
So little time.
Life goes by
In the blink of an eye.

Time to stop wishing
For my stutter to go away.
Time to live my life.
Time to speak today.

Yes, I still stutter.
I still block when I talk.
My goal: stop substituting; stop avoiding.
There's no need to balk.

But enough questions
Enough worry, enough fear.
The time has come.
The time is here.

To stand up for who I am.
To speak my thoughts.
To have my say.
I'm going to stutter freely today.

submitted August 2, 2000