By Patti Tana
Date: 4 April 2000
NO
I will not speak
when words stick in my throat like bricks,
when all words say love me
love me as I love you.
I will not speak
when I am feeling like a wall of bricks
that runs along the bottom of a hill
where water seeps.
Touching the wall
moss springs green and soft and moist
and silent as the forest after rain
before birds learned to sing.
No, I will not speak
when I would rather touch.
Back to the Heart-on-Sleeve Corner