Stasis I

The still, silent air chafes
at my insides, rasps
particles at the back of my throat,
wavers before my eyes.  Silence
is a pain that drives a stake 
deep, deep, into the bitter dark, 
that weighs on the shoulders
like a part of the world severed 
and laid heavily on me ...
my future is opaque, oblique,
cloudy with memory
and silence stirs itself
against my ears maddeningly
like scores of voices whispering
in unknown tongues ...
through them too clearly
I can hear 
my own heart beat.

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