Imposed Silence

Stream of Consciousness Writing 12/30/2016

by Lynne M. Colombe

What do you do when your pen

has been quiet for too long;

When you let someone steal your thoughts

     and force you to abandon your feelings

     onto unmarked library catalog cards

all in the wrong drawers

overfilled and unorganized?

- Obsolete

When you can't sing; but you know the song

and want to

The sheet music slides through your fingers

and blows away.

Chasing it, you catch it;

     only to unearth that

it was blank and the lyrics are

     a scribble about a memory

That nobody but you

     can understand.

It's the chapter you read,

in a book you ignored

     too long;

reading the same paragraph

     over and over

making sense nowise;

     but you keep reading -

Absorbing nothing at all.

The conversation that stalled before

anything was said at all;

     fear upholding

the lock of words behind my mouth -

     ideas and thoughts confined

behind clenched teeth and fists -

Fighting to be free.