Turn

I heard you speak
Through loudspeakers
From towering places —
Day and night relentless —
Calling out
Deaths of kin
In rattling chains

And slaughter
Under decrees
Hung on creaking gallows
And at the butchers’ blades —
Through bodies skinned and quartered
In pools of blood, voices shrieking —
Loud and clear
I heard you speak

In the gutters —
Spluttering and puking
Drowning and choking
In the slurred voices of the drunk
The ravings of the drugged
In the screams of the tortured
Soft groans, loud yelling
Chanting masses
Ranting scholars clashing —
I heard you speak

Through edicts
Of kings and parliaments
Marching boots waging wars
Crumbling cities
Destroying centuries of labour
In an instant —
I heard you speak

Through your roaring
Rages, tempers flaring
And in your whisperings —
Gentle —
In bird songs
Fading in the distance
In the falling
Of rain
On the rooftop —
I heard you speak

Through screaming screens
In mountains of paper
Through rustling books
Endless chatter
In ceaseless dialogues
Of the wise and the ignorant —
I heard you speak

I have heard you speak
All my life —
But you have not
Heard me speak

To you
Without interruptions —
Or another sound
From you
Ever again

Thus —
I speak to you
Through unbroken silence