There is no violence as loud as silence

 

Silence as violence

Silence as violence

Silence as violence

Silence as violence

Kill the silence! 

 

Coming to terms with that oppressive feeling of

having to keep everything I feel about you quiet, silent

How can I swim and keep my head above a sound

so deafening, so loud, so violent

A hissing sound with a frequency

as devastating as the fear

of being eaten alive by white noise

There is no sound as loud as silence 

 

Don’t lock yourself!

Don’t lock yourself!

Don’t lock yourself!

Don’t lock yourself!

The lock is broken!

 

Acting my lad-self with my teen mates 

Still doing things that ‘lads’ do

We all drank beer and played pool in the pub

And then I opened my mouth to speak

 

And my voice, its tone, its hue

Its texture separates md from them

We do not sound the same, I was convinced my voice creates

A division to the point I hated the sound of my own voice

If you endure years and years of feeling unheard, one self-violates

So for years, I kept it buttoned, closed my mouth and did not speak

 

Don’t mock yourself!

Don’t knock yourself!

Shake up yourself!

Wake up yourself!

Wake the unwoken!

 

Now my voice no longer haunts me, it liberates

I take pride in its texture when I speak

We are all the same, men are just men

So the lads like Bernice and I like Ben

I’ve liberated my body too from years of self-shaming

Now it’s the turn of my voice that I am reclaiming

This is my reclamation, see me and hear me 

as my flesh opens its mouth and begins to speak

 

Don’t lock yourself!

Unblock yourself!

Unlock yourself!

and shock yourself!

Speak, be outspoken!