Poem

There is no peace in silence

By Anthony Muchoki

The silence
Louder
Than Hiroshima bomb
Kept 50 years
Festering in the hollows
Of his chest
Where words should have lived
But died before birth

Fake peace
A painted smile over
Rotting foundations
The world saw calm
But inside—
A storm swallowed whole
Eating him from within

The burden of silence
Heavy as gravestone
Pressed against his ribs
Each unspoken truth
A weight added
Year after year
Until breathing became
An act of defiance
Against all he could not say

Broke his lungs
Shattered them like glass
Under the hammer
Of swallowed screams
The words he’d buried
Rose up as poison
Demanding their due

The bats
Merciless
Circled overhead
Witnesses to his collapse
Laughed
Their shrill voices
The only sound
In his soundless world
Mocking the man
Who thought silence was strength

He fell down
In silence
Knees hitting earth
Without a cry
Without a gasp
Without the release
Of finally letting go

Died in great pain
In silence
The agony of
Everything unsaid
Echoing in the void
Between his last heartbeat
And his first eternal moment

In silence
Louder
Than Hiroshima bomb
A detonation
That no one heard
But everyone felt
In the empty space
Where a voice
Should have been

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *