Unmute
In all the squares people’s lips are moving.
They make no sound.
I shout at them,
announce the deaths of children,
tally the starving millions,
document the fool’s postures,
chat about those imprisoned without cause.
bemoan the dismissal of excellence,
list the lost futures—
raise the hand icon over and over.
Do they only see my lips moving?
11 thoughts on "Unmute"
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The deafening silence indeed. It’s always to good to really your insightful poetry.
Meant to say “read” your poetry. Where are you this year?
Linda, thanks! I am in my home in Alburquerque.
Yes , Linda brought this one to my attention. Yes, a zoom dysfunction that makes one wonder who’s hosting and why does it seem that the balanced thoughtful are all muted.
Well penned and yes, thank you for sharing.
Ahhh, floated between Rome’s squares and Zoom’s.
Interesting…
Wow.
Powerful work!
Thank you for this.
This is powerful, Greg. If Zoom hasn’t done anything else for us, it made this poem possible!
This reminded me of the old Simon & Garfunkle song, “Sound of Silence,” but it also brought to mind Neruda saying, “ALL poetry is political.” Sometimes that’s obscure, and other times, like here, it’s very overt, and necessarily so.
This is the time (like the late 1960s) for protest songs and protest poetry. Thank you for this. I hope you are submitting this to some literary journals. (BTW Have you heard the new protest song by Drop Kick Murphy? You can find it on YouTube. )
That’s a heady compliment–S&G were my favorites in college days. And yes, time for protest poetry. Thanks for the comments.
The image you’ve created and captured here is quite powerful. Indeed, it does often feel like yelling into a void, our voices unheard. My only hope is that if we are loud enough, we will one day hear an echo.
More and more, it is important for poets to speak! To unmute!