POEM: Re: My Silence.
Re: My Silence
You want to take your resilience,
put it in a box
and ship it away.
The first time she told you you were resilient
You felt special
You felt strong
You felt like you were exiting a funeral
dressed to kill.
Resiliency became your pet
A black cat, a shadow, a pillow
Familiar.
Then it became a fence.
Then it became a wall.
Then it became a ______.
You rearranged the letters, left a few behind
SILENCE
Added, subtracted, multiplied like baking a
vegan version of an old family recipe
RE: MY SILENCE
REST, SILLY
LIES
CLIENTS
SLICE, SLIVER
ERSTWHILE, HENCE.
The word became everything and nothing
Scrambled like memories on mood stabilizers
Confetti at a party you don’t know who to invite
Resilience was your long nails when you took your vitamins
And the unbreakable milkcrates you built your furniture with
Resilience began as a password
And then it became a buzzword, a brand,
an excuse.
***
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