When words fail…

Do you hear me,

when words fail?

And, my stare- blank and stark

deflected from your porcelain smiles,

tries to stick on slippery faces

but unable to focus

slithers sideways,

right, left, diagonally….

When words fail

I hear

messages strewn around

-        in a million languages

waiting to be picked up, understood, replied.

How easily found,

yet simply lost

in the cacophony of connotations,

intended or acquired!

I plug my ears

with swishes of dried up conversations-

blocking off

murmurs and whispers,

magnifying the emptiness

they try so hard to protect….

When words fail

truth lies bare,

stark naked.

And, I rush to a book….