A Life Of Stillness

Here's to the lives of people's whose life
has stopped because they exist in communities
where the power of speech means accepting
not being listened to. The result is still a life,
even when their routines have the momentum 
of a stopped clock-what they do is right
twice a day, but nobody knows when.

Such limited cogence from thought to word
to action is all that is left open to them.

For all those whose lives are so highly structured
that by rote they turn a deaf ear when they sense
other people's need to be heard, you ignore
the stillness and the ache in the wait to be heard
by others at your peril. Being ignored will come
to you in good time; I hope you understand it then.