I Can’t Speak?

 

I can’t speak?

 

If I do

will you send

the cops

in the middle of the night

like you did

for a woman of twenty-one

dangling handcuffs

those scary snakes

hissing the S word

for lack of anything

substantial

before locking an innocent away

 

I can’t speak?

 

And if I do

will your mammoth

money machinery

well oiled

well coiled

spring into motion

spitting out threats

licking your ass

on a zillion screens

across the subcontinent

scream sedition sedition sedition

 

I can’t speak?

 

And if I do

you have weapons

you say

yes, the S word

you say

the same one

the colonial courts coined

to cut the tongues

of truth tellers

the same one

you

serious disciple

use

to water the soil

your masters long since left