How do you find the words

How do you find the words

To speak

When the breath

Has been sucked out of a room

The silence

A solid wall

Immovable without an improvised

Explosive device

Attached to an emotional

Trigger

Blow me down

Waiting for the return

Of fresh cool air

Can take forever

When there is no backdraft

The vacuum lingers

A little longer than it needs

To break the spell

Lungs can be crushed

Inside the chest

Panic frozen

Until the snap

Of a sharp word

Drives the weight

Of meaning home

To release

The end of a sentence

After so long

In gestation

Is a risk

When so many prisoners

Of conscience

Have remained hidden

Out of reach

Beyond the wire

How do you touch them

So easily

When they try to remain

At arm’s length

Close to the edge

Of what is possible

Barely credible

Inmates of the soul

Afraid to make an application

For parole

Scratching a line

Of freedom in blood

A language

So eloquently woven

The fragility

Of the construction

Its greatest strength

And still, we breathe

The same air

Every word filtered through

The geometry

Of a different lens

A self-sustaining narrative

How does it happen

Is it important

That I know

When will it end

Does it really matter

If it is tomorrow.