The poet has spent this last three and one half years as a despised outcast upon the fringes of our society ~ on many days never pronouncing a single word not recorded for publication. She finds the dignity of silence, now, very comfortable.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:07): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bosmwnse5wcbcdsfugbz5/No-Need-to-Speak.mp3?rlkey=gxm3y5u8srk1j54h7ymn4okrs&dl=0

*****

No Need to Speak

I don’t need to talk to you —
Something that I think you miss
When I’ve been talking myself blue
Leading you toward your bliss

What you do not seem to know
Is before I’d say a peep
Out of my verbal way to go
I’d rather much sweet silence keep

I understand that you know those
Folks who hide behind the sound
Of their own voices, from the throes
With which an inner life abound

But this mind must so very much
Of its energy
Concentrate upon mere such
Specifically:

You say one thing — pretty sure
You must mean another
(You don’t think anybody’s pure
So hell, why would you bother?)

Eighty percent of communication
Goes by us unheard
Determined by body parts’ location ~
And contradicts, again, our word

So much of calculation, so much
Of venality! ~
If I go ignorant of such,
You infantile imagine me

Your mind this street and business
As reality sees
My mind sees them but coalesce
Amid great galaxies

Outward forms of but a thought
Gone like shining bubbles then,
By cheerful absence thus begot
Room to manifest once again

Are the novas in these eyes
Reduced to but a dozen word
Which penetrate your dear disguise,
Actually by you heard?

Requires the most excruciating
Contortions from me
Of which you, unappreciating,
Unsuspecting be

No, never think you hear me speak
Naught but my own pleasure for
My pleasure’s silence — if I speak
It’s for I count your pleasure more

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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