Silence is a song I know all the words to
And I will read your eyes like an open book
A single glance is all it took
To know you were in pain.
I now call you my brother.
This is due to two parts you
And two parts me
We share this same animosity
Where in our eyes there's sorrow and loss
And as our tears drip down and water the moss
Keeping us pinned as the world moves forward
We pray to god for some misdirection
Any rejection of our inner reflection
So at least that way it wouldn't be so bad.

Silence is a song you know all the words to,
And as I saw you smile that guise of a grin
It filled me with this disgusting chagrin
That I wasn't alone in my misery
The truth is, I loved the company
And I'd moan and whine and grovel and complain
But having someone helped the pain
To fade.

And though I've sung it for who knows how long, I'm done with silence's solitary song.

In the absence of time, I created space
Words from my mind to my fingers to the page
Emotions burst forth in a crescendo of rage
And I'd cry and I'd scream and I'd laugh and I'd toy
With the thoughts in my head and the fears in my mind
The toils and turmoils all bouncing in time
To this desolate orchestra I play with no help
Conducted by the faults I saw in myself.

In the absence of light, I found this void
This space without time where I tried to avoid
The feelings repressed underneath the sun's rays
Compounded and bolstered, god knows how many days
I'd ended with smiles, to come home in tears
I'd gone from crying in laughter, to facing my fears.

But there's another song  I see in your eyes
Hear in your voice,
Louder than the lies that echo inside as we're falling asleep
Each one a wolf we counted as a sheep.
And though we share this animosity
I look in the mirror and the thing I didn't see
Was a friend in sight. But... again, I was wrong.

Silence is a song I read on your lips
And as your smile slowly slips
I pray that you'll open with deafening sound
Send fault lines through the silence around
Chasms deepened with every note
A cacophonous joy from both our throats
A sudden duet like some Disney dream
A resplendent note piercing the  seams
Of the absence of noise
And the presence of fear
And amidst the chaos
I can finally hear
Your voice.

Silence is a song I know you sing.
Humming quietly as you think
You're alone.
But you're wrong, too.

Each outburst adds to the melody
So every person should sing with glee
Louder than the pursuing chorus
Sing so loud they can't ignore us
Silence is a song the world knows well
But it's our turn now so let's raise hell
And raise our voices to the heavens above
Fill the deafening silence with words of love
And as the walls around us begin to crumble
Slowly we'll begin to stumble
Free from this prison of our own minds
No longer fear what lies behind
Look all around and be at peace
For the truth will set us free.

Silence is a song that damages the soul
And only through noise can our lives be whole
The things we don't say never get said
The things we don't hear will never be read
In the eyes of another singing the song
Because without words they can't sing along
So make your own words, and play the notes wrong
Throw a cog in the workings of sweet siren song
Acknowledge the light and let others in
You've got the new lyrics already within;

Hope is a song we all know the words to.

I’d never mark my stamp on you
even if I thought I could
and with lessons drawn
from father’s “tool and die, ”
I know I’ll never try.

That stamping press Dad used
left only negative impressions,
crushed in carbide steel,
to mark the owner’s brand.

No, I’ll have none of that
I need your free undented souls
To sing both “I” and “we”
in mystic synchronicity:
drawing life from the speckled pages.

But like my father at his lathe,
I’ll ply my studied craft
and bid you do the same with yours
so that you and I
can find our truths among the spots
and, with mysterious synchronicity,
breathe radiant, illimitable life
into the freckled, speckled pages.

*June, 2009