Quiet, Quiet. Peace or Shame.
Can a man touch his feelings?
Sometimes we touch them all too well.
Sometimes we don’t know how to tell.
Some silence comes from peace.
Some silence comes from fear
that sharing our burdens burdens her.
To an outside observer,
these silences feel alike.
A man can become very skilled
at making them look the same.
One way to know may be to
see what he does in the quiet.
One way to know may be to
hold him close enough that
you can hear if his body is screaming.
This was once my pattern.
A poem stamped into my manual.
I’ve since learned to speak with my mouth
and show my needs with a smile;
before my face becomes a wall
and my body needs to shout.
