Silence

Silence says more than speech. A minute’s pause

   Can hold a Bible’s worth of love and wrath

And say both yes and no at once, because—

   Thought stillness always moves—we choose its path.

Silence means more than speech. Words pin things down

   Till they explain away the mystified,

While silence grins like a demented clown

   At definitions, till they run and hide.

Silence hurts more than speech. The longer it

   Goes on, the more it wounds, like a long knife

Driven up from your belly bit by bit

   Until it finds your heart and takes your life,

      Sickens your faith till it's a worthless cheat,

      And poisons love until it's rotten meat.

Copyright 2017 Matthew J Wells