Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend,
darkness... darkness is my friend... I have known it and embraced it for so long, it is my friend...
I've come to talk with you again,
there are secrets I can only share with you, they belong to you, they are dark...
Because a vision softly creeping,
gradually, gradually it crept up on me, it did not ambush me, I expected it when it came...
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
I was asleep, but it was not a dream, it was a vision, it left in my mind the seeds of doubt and uncertainty...
And the vision that was planted in my brain
because the seed fell on fertile ground...
Still remains
much as I try to banish it...
Within the sound of silence.
so I try to drown it in music...

In restless dreams I walked alone
...but are we ever anything but alone?
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
comforting and treacherous at the same time...
neath the halo of a street lamp,
bleeding its light into you, into the darkness...
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
but could not stop it from seeping in...
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
sending curlicues of light and pain into my mind...
That split the night
cleaving you in twain...
And touched the sound of silence.
making me see it for the first time...

And in the naked light I saw
as though a fog was lifted from my eyes...
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
scurrying, tucked into their collars, looking at the ground in front of their feet...
People talking without speaking,
their lips opening and closing, their words empty and hollow...
People hearing without listening,
performing two concurrent monologues and calling it conversation...
People writing songs that voices never shared
limited to echoing within their minds...
And no one dared
no one, including me...
Disturb the sound of silence.
that dulled the eyes and froze the hearts...

Fools said I,you do not know
and I am just beginning to learn...
Silence like a cancer grows.
stealthily at first, until it is too big to fight...
Hear my words that I might teach you,
don't just hear, but truly listen...
Take my arms that I might reach you.
don't turn your backs to me...
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
not on earth, that would welcome them, but on cobbles, that refused them...
And echoed
splashing back up towards me...
In the wells of silence
that people gladly, nay eagerly, drank from...

And the people bowed and prayed
never once lifting their heads toward the sky...
To the neon God they made.
but refused to look at...
And the sign flashed out its warning,
which failed to gain attention...
In the words that it was forming.
to no avail...
And the sign said, the words of the prophets
who they called ignorant or crazy...
Are written on the subway walls
under your cover and with your help...
And tenement halls.
deemed unworthy of their gaze...
And whispered in the sounds of silence.