My hungry heart, a nest
yawning to heaven,
hollow and unsettled, waits
for the white bird of promise
to lay its perfect egg,
raise its noisy hatchling.

Your deafness makes me dumb.
My woollen mouth gapes helplessly,
hands signal clumsily,
as meanings fall, crude and lumpish,
into the leaden silence
that leaps up and engulfs me.

Stepping delicately
between the corpses,
I stumble and reach out my hand.
Frail shadows flicker their offers
of phantom help.
I fall and fall again.

Wrapping this cloak around me,
I know what I know,
have seen what I have seen.
Nothing takes this from me,
mine forever, it can't be un-known.
These accumulated treasures
are shared with others
whose throats are tight,
chests leaden and thoughts dim.

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