Do not fear
They demanded of us.
From the moment I can remember,
The world was scary.
There’s something out there,
They told us.
He’s here to save us.
All this fear, it’s lying to you
Trust in that thing out there.
They’d insist.
Lay your fear aside
Everything that’s scary,
It really isn’t real.
it’s all a faithless test.
They said again and again.
just don’t be afraid
And then you’ll be safe.
I learned how to pretend
But
When his voice got loud
It still felt scary.
When his fingers slipped under my dress,
I think I looked afraid.
When the nighttime came,
The darkness knew my name.

One morning It all came crashing down,
I could no longer lie
And act like I wasn’t afraid.

Everything scared me again.
I couldn’t get out of bed.
I started to think that thing out there didn’t really exist.
And once I let the fear in,
It dragged me to hell.
Once I was in hell,
I stood up out of the flames.
And climbed my way back to the earth again.

Everything scary is still here,
But I’m not afraid anymore.
My fear asked me to say it’s name and hold her for a while.
After that she sat quietly waiting for me to need her again.