The Silence of Seven – Stephanie Bennett-Henry

What can I say that I haven’t tried to tell you before?

I have tried to turn my voice into a machine

at times, thinking my words may drill

understanding into your head, your heart, anything.

I failed at that. Or you failed at that.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

What’s done is done and it exists

forever now. My heart is heavy with the weight

of the world, always has been.

But somehow I allowed you to make that heaviness

feel light

in comparison to the way judgement looks

in your eyes.

I can’t compare anything to the times I’ve felt so abandoned

by the person who promised for better or worse.

I laugh about that now. Sometimes I look at you

in your laid back ways, never

letting anything bring you down,

and I get it.

I get that you couldn’t possibly understand

the turmoil that turns my mind…