THE SHARED SILENCE

He did not know what to hold up to her,

a lamp or a mirror

whereby she could know

where to find her lost self,

by the light of the lamp

on the lost continent of her heart,

or in the reflection in the mirror

which would perhaps alienate

her further from the image of what she was.

And so they sat in the silence

of the space and the silence of the night,

not able to find a bridge

between a loss of language

and the loss of speech.

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Sushama Karnik

2014