Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Poetry Break: I Heard You

Change of pace here today mainly because I'm running out of time for today's blog post.

So I am going into the archives and posting a little bit of poetry.

The nice thing about poetry - it doesn't take long to read.

Here we go.





I Heard You
by Anna Maria Junus

I heard you,
Though the words never escaped your lips.
I heard you
through your eyes
 and the way you held your arms folded
tightly in front of you.
The flinches from touch,
The fist sized bruise on the small of your back
That I wasn't supposed to see,
And all the things you didn't say
when the rest of us joked about
the fights with our husbands and the latest things
they did to tick us off.

I heard you
And I did nothing.

It was easier to pretend.
Easier to smile and laugh
and not notice that your smile never quite reached
your eyes even though you were
the wittiest of all of us and always had the best
punchlines.
It seemed kinder not to intrude.
After all, if you wanted me to know
You would have told me.
Right?

He plays his part convincingly,
(So did you, by the way).
He stands there, holding your children's hands,
Wiping appropriate tears from his face,
While dirt is thrown upon you.
Comforting arms encircle him, and words
of love are murmured into his ear.
They never heard you.

But I heard you.
And this time,
I will not do nothing.

1 comments:

The Gratitude Guru said...

The thing I love about poetry is that I can read the same poem over and over. Depending on where I am (Happy, disappointed, sad, joyful, etc.) I am moved in different ways.

It is similar how the same cologne or perfume can smell differently on 2 different people.

Thanks for sharing.