The Other Side of Silence

Deep down, buried beneath the armor
of skin and flesh and bones,
sitting behind the practiced smile 
that is not really a smile at all,
lays the other side of silence

It is the voice that calls out to you
from a thousand layers deep, 
past the underbelly of sorrow,
past the frantic heat of rage

In the lonely hours between dusk and dawn,
it is the voice that no one hears,
tender and strong as a blade of grass
in the spring, a bare tree in winter

It is your pain and it is mine,
rooted inside us and crying out,
give my pain a voice so that I may weep,
give my pain a voice so that I may feel,
give my pain a voice so that I may live!