by Hera Güneş Barlowe

Silence.

Has there ever been one?

Just because we don’t listen

does it mute the voices?

All have a song.

All is the song.

The mule, the willow tree, the honeybee, the corals, the meadows, the wind…

Even the human,

Is what they say at the great council

Over at the mountain tops.

Where the clouds gently kisses the mortals,

Is where we ask for forgiveness.

Why do we seek so high

When all that is needed is within?

The wounds are internal

Every axe is always to us

Cause there is no them to strangle.

Brother to brother

Cat to mouse

Was it always one or was there ever none?

Goes hand in hand

Back to the ground.

Rivers yearning to reach their oceans

Like a mother to her stolen calf

Forever gone, forever again

In our hearts is where we ask for forgiveness

When eyes forget

The torment is still ever.

The trick of forgotten conscious

Lies beneath the eyes of Medusa

Ask and you’ll get a

It is how it is

Tectonic plates move

Faster than the machine

If the machine is well oiled

The oil we’ll feast

The oil we’ll dance around its fire

While it burns our feet

Blackens our lungs

Till the last bit of drop

Goes down the hatch

Of the mighty grasshopper

And that’ll be the tale of the voices

Then comes the song of silence.

Live performance at PickPocket's Climate Awareness event

April, 2025