i believe you've paused between thoughts
i can't get a read on the way you curl certain letters
and often forget to dot your i's

i heard a distinct voice, one much deeper than yours
and i thought i felt a drop of rain touch my cheek

i believe you stopped writing that letter
i believe there are electric shocks happening behind your eyes

there wasn't a loud bang,
there were no sirens to indicate something gone awry
there wasn't an intruder trying to break us down
there just wasn't significant proof that anything was even remotely wrong

but i heard your foot stop tapping the floor
and i heard you crumple leaves into your coffee

i believe my hearing is a curse
i believe naivety isn't just a symptom

there is something greater behind that glass

there is waiting all around us
there are good days dangling from ropes
and they are watching for us to grab hold,
to find a way through the wrong turns
and i'm killing a new breed of spider every day
and i saw one crawl inside your ear
and i said nothing
i said nothing

there was a yellow tint to your stomach
there was bruising under your feet
and i never knew what your handwriting meant
and i never did see the smoke

and we never could agree whose turn it was to leave.

05/04/2010

Author's Note:

sometimes the things we don't hear are worse than the things we do

Posted on 05/04/2010
Copyright © 2026 Ava Blu

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Gabriel Ricard on 05/04/10 at 08:43 PM
I think this poem expresses your author's note with such beauty and force that it's impossible to do much else but stare at these words over and over again and marvel at how anyone could ever put so much insight into so much strange, surreal imagery and create a perfect balance between the two. Lovely and amazing, but I hope you knew that already.
Posted by Charlie Morgan on 05/05/10 at 04:00 PM
ava, i love this unheard, unsaid, EXPOSE...O'love/life. circular as it should be. as is life.
Posted by Matthew Sharp on 05/10/10 at 04:26 AM
such vivid reference and your unique signature flow of metaphoric analogies amaze me. they always have... beautiful jeanna