The Sound of Silence

07/07/2020 – Poem a Day Compilation


Do you hear that sound?

It is the sound of a million voices,

Silent in the dark,

Afraid and confused and betrayed

By the noise inside their heads

That won’t pass their lips,

That can’t be heard in the night,

That wells up inside them

And chokes them

While those with the power

To yell and scream and shout

Do nothing in this world

But make endless noise

Drowning out the silence

Of another voice lost –

Another muzzle fitted,

Another story untold –

When we desperately need to hear

And to listen

To those who are silent

To those with no voice

To those who hide in the shadows

Beyond the safe spaces and the tears

Because in this world they cannot shout

Over the static that surrounds them

And there is no blood curdling scream

Until it is too late,

(As the scream falls silent

And you wonder why they didn’t speak,

Why they didn’t cry out,

Why no one heard)

And the yelling never stops,

It never goes away

It echoes and repeats

In the silence of the forgotten;

And the terror that lives in that silence

Sucks air out of lungs,

Rips flesh from bones

And lets blood run dry

Because it has no answers

Only silence, and more silence,

And there,

In the sound of silence,

It hides, and it grows,

Consuming everything –

All that betrayal,

All that confusion,

All that fear –

Until there is only silence

And silence is the only sound.