colorless words fall from your mouth
like delicately placed-holders
the sound of silence is one that
is too intense for your modest ears,
those which only hear annoyance and desperation
those which dismiss doubt and fear
those which once, but only once
experienced the sound of anger and wrath
but quickly forgot the intensity of pain
how do those ears feel the emotion
ingrained  in cracks on the streets
how do they possible know that
here once someone experienced their
very          last           breath?
if the sounds of gunshots make you deafen
if the cry of a distressed victim weakens your ability
i may excuse your bare back in the storm
but by the dimly lit candle
the shrieking howls of the wind
on the sturdy walls of your shelter
you have no cause
to absorb the destruction
like a minute flick of a lighter