The temptation of silence
Do they hear when you speak of kindness
as the storm rages even within their dwellings?
Do they listen when you remind them of the evil
which finds a home beneath the rotten smiles?
Do they see when the world spins to a frenzy
into a hurricane of dust if their lives’ debris?
Do they watch as the earth’s bowels burn
the last drop of dew on the cremated oaks.
Does it matter to them when she cries
near the grave that houses all her dreams.
Why say a word, why show them the eternal film
of the sadness that brushes past them?
Perhaps she will choose to vanish with her words
charming as they are, murdered by their ignorance.
Fabrice E. Poussin is a professor of French and. His work in poetry and photography has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. Most recently, his collections In Absentia, and If I Had a Gun, were published in 2021 and 2022 by Silver Bow Publishing.
Do they hear when you speak of kindness
as the storm rages even within their dwellings?
Do they listen when you remind them of the evil
which finds a home beneath the rotten smiles?
Do they see when the world spins to a frenzy
into a hurricane of dust if their lives’ debris?
Do they watch as the earth’s bowels burn
the last drop of dew on the cremated oaks.
Does it matter to them when she cries
near the grave that houses all her dreams.
Why say a word, why show them the eternal film
of the sadness that brushes past them?
Perhaps she will choose to vanish with her words
charming as they are, murdered by their ignorance.
Fabrice E. Poussin is a professor of French and. His work in poetry and photography has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. Most recently, his collections In Absentia, and If I Had a Gun, were published in 2021 and 2022 by Silver Bow Publishing.
