Voices

On this day of silence
it seems that there are voices
never heard - not now, not ever.

Blessed, if it be that,
with a quiet gift
to fashion words
that sometimes move,
I ask the question:
who will hear my voice?
And will it matter?

On this remembering day
no need for words
when silence speaks
with eloquence, with passion,
and such dignity.

Yet listen.  Voices can be heard –
the many million
senseless voices
lost in catastrophic conflict:
a massed lament for humankind.

We humans, all, we have a voice,
but one most often numbed.
And so this quiet gift
may have a place
in speaking, sighing
and, yes, sobbing about this
universal silence: the pity and the pain,
and the still unspoken word
of voices never heard.


November 11, 2015