tensioned silence

silence

at once arrogant and shrill

speaks truth about relationships

louder than words could say

as they stand at the threshold of looking

staring blank past their eyes pleading

their lips sealed 'gainst the knowledge

that would free the caged Bird

silence

like God is silent

yet slaying

like God can slay

by speaking

holds them tensioned

attending to each other's absence

and presence

brushing each other

like whispered hope

a fermenting dream

believing that one day

someday

forgiveness will blossom

embrace and kiss

and wonder why

it took so long

to speak

*The Storyteller

from beginning

to end

I become

the story

I tell myself

to be

myself

others

want to tell my story

too

but

when I listen well

to myself

with a friend

I am

the story

meant to be

told

only once

without

end

*Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

*One reason people are so creative in relation to disease is because it is there that they face elementary forces that both constitute and decompose them.

-Lawrence E. Sullivan

*...medicine is always miraculous. It makes visible, for all to see, the powers that otherwise remain invisible outside of the critical context of sickness and suffering.

-Lawrence e. Sullivan