***Silence***

Andrew Joshua Talon

************

Hiiiiiiiiiiii....

That silence is heard. It's there with a nothingness just inside of a vacuum.

Silence. Nothing but a thin whine in the background, devoid of anything else.

Hiiiiiiiiiii...

What is that, that whine? In the "silence", what is it?

It torments and perplexes me. There should be no sound, and yet there it sounds, in the emptiness.

Hiiiiiiiii...

The whine grows, the silence recedes, the darkness closes in.

I then ask: Do I really know what silence is? I don't.

So, is the whine supposed to be there?

Hiiiiiiii...

I can't think, I can't breathe, the soundless sound grows and amplifies.

Until it dawns on me, at the edge of my collapsing mind:

The whine IS the silence...

Hiiiiiii....

Some bastard has accused me of the worst of human crimes: rape. I did not rape ANYONE, I would not rape ANYONE, and I will never rape ANYONE.

The silence in my heart is what this poem is about.