Poem: Mute

Oh, to press mute on the world
And say hello to silence.
To breathe in deep,
And exhale slow,
To close our eyes,
So we can go,
To find our peace of mind.

We’ll start with all the traffic noise,
The bombs, the sirens and alarms.
Flicking switches,
Snipping wires,
We’ll silently disarm.

Turn off all the televisions,
Especially the news.
It’s only there to trigger terror
And strategically confuse.

The talking, talking, talking,
Of the people in our lives.
The ceaseless stream of opinions
From the so-called ‘wise’.
The babble must be broken,
The preaching put to rest.
We all deserve a moment
To decide what we think is best.

Oh, to press mute on the world
And stifle all the shouting.
To kill their voices, one by one,
To cut off each and every tongue,
So their words cannot be sung
Within our peace of mind.

We’ll shut off all the rainfall,
The thunder and lightning too.
The chatter of the birds above,
The music that we keenly love,
It’s no use for what we’ll do.

And in our newfound silence,
What is it that we’ll find?
Our hopes, dreams and honesty
Crammed in corners of our mind.
Pull them from their hiding places,
Breathe air into their lungs.
Wipe away the past mistakes,
We made when we were young.

Sit a minute with your thoughts,
Sifting through the lies.
Sorting out the good from bad,
What you’ve got and what you’ve had,
Cutting all the ties.

When finally, you’ve finished
And your brain has been unblocked.
No more noise, no more din,
Nothing that can wear you thin,
Be careful what you let back in,
To keep your peace of mind.

By Sylvia Villa (2022)