My Words - Hemingway To Gertrude Stein

Are those thoughts you put in
  what I once valued more

Or would what I put out
  be the end winning score

Did I need your ears
  for my voice to become whole

Or would I rather them deafened
  words deep in my soul

In my twenties your opinion
  carried some weight

In my thirties I listened
  but asked you to wait

In my forties I turned
  and walked slowly away

Now alone in the twilight
  —to carry the day

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)