Why Can’t You Hear Me?

Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris

You can’t hear me

I am speaking beneath your voice

droning on and on

a muddle of senseless prattle

You know I am speaking

You know I can hear you

You do not have to shout

and stomp about like a circus clown

I am listening to you

I can understand you

I remain stoically silent

after so many years

you notice my muteness

Your hands on my shoulders

wanting me to speak to you

I can not speak to you

speechlessness arrests my voice

invisible words of loneliness and despair

spill from my throat but you can not hear

My utterances remain without form