Our eloquent silence

“Silence is the residue of fear. Silence is the Rwanda genocide. Silence is Katrina. It is what you hear, when there aren’t enough body bags left.”

- Clint Smith

To say nothing

And remain quiet

Is a powerful thing.

It may be one’s sentence to death

Or one’s sentence to jail.

Silence is

As eloquent as any good speaker

As loud as any scream.

Silence is

An answer just like any other

A ‘yes’ or a ‘no’

And all the arguments that explain a decision.

Silence is

You in a confrontation

Ignoring those whose voices are muffled

By the influential ones.

To say nothing

Is more

than saying too much.

Silence is

To reduce yourself to nothing

To be afraid to speak up your mind

And to shut yourself from what happens around you.

Silence is

To accept any form of slavery

To maintain the world as it is

And to exterminate words.

Oh

All the things we wanted to say

 but never did.

From now on

Let silence only be

The sound of peace at dawn.