Forever unspoken

It hurts so much to close the door

On another’s pain

It is not love

To count the terrible cost

Of another’s silence

If we remain deaf

To their unspoken suffering

It is not easy to love those

Who are in such pain

That their attention is turned so completely away

From relatedness, connection

And so it is I know I must

Listen attentively

For what lays

Hidden deep within the spaces between words

Recognising that only

In these moments of quiet

Is truth revealed

I will attune to the waves of loss

That lap beneath

The surface of things

Sensing your soul surrounded

(Almost eclipsed)

By this ocean of loss

For God knows

There are so many things

Of which the body cannot speak

So instead

I will feel us breathing in and out

Aware of how many years of traumatic history

We have shared

I do not know

If you will sense in this silence

This attentiveness

My unspoken apology

Even though God knows I was not

The cause of all of this

But at times I hurt you too

Never meaning to

Only needing so desperately to find

A way to bear witness

To harsh realities

And now I recognise

How deeply you have suffered too

I wish that there was something I could say to you

That would fill this terrible emptiness

(an impossible wish)

For each of us

Must carry our own burdens

And find whatever peace and happiness

As we struggle to live

In a world so often

Barren or devoid

Of tenderness

So now perhaps

All that is left

Is to wait and attune with the breath

As the forgiving power of love

Seeks to rise

From all between us

That must remain forever

Unspoken