you don’t say?

The silence,
deep and rising-
“I want.” 
“I need.” 
“I think.” 
Surprisingly,
was never said. 
“You should.” 
“We should.” 
“They should.” 
Disguised us
instead.

The moment
begged for
more
but all
that we could
say
for sure
was that
we didn’t
know
more than
we knew.

I stewed. 
Withdrew. 
Eschewed
instead
of grew. 
Became a
ghost. 

Instead
of quiet
attacks
it
would have
been better
to
mark my
path with
many tracks;

leave fear,
carry facts;
remembering
that we can
be beautiful
and we can
be useful
and we can
choose words,
while we
say nothing,
that might
achieve
both.