Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
-Rainer Rilke,
The student
who lost
her voice
did not
scream out,
of course.
Hushed,
she sat near
the back
of class,
her head
and hand
kept low.
No longer
singing
in the car
on the slow
drive home,
she sought
solace in
her breathing,
a listener
in the poem.
Speechless,
she sparred
with God,
searching
skies in
silence.
In stillness
of the night,
she cried
and cradled
her aloneness.
With time,
the quiet held
her, led her
to the page.
She clasped
the pen,
she claimed
her voice.
She wrote,
she wrote,
she wrote.
