Messages -16/01/2012

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Language;
the greatest thing we have achieved
in our mammalian two minutes to midnight
the very first
most diverse
yet highly refined technology
we possess
a medium to transform thought
into message

language
also stands us up knife-point
between hope and despair
showing us the best
and worst
of our species

though they speak different languages
when people want to understand
one another
they will, somehow

though also, somehow
should two people
not wish to listen to one another
even when sharing the same language
communication becomes impossible

we talk our ammunition out
at each other
accusations fire
from the barrel
of personal injustice
banners of our outrage
we speak our sides our teams
our rights to our things
talk the debts we are owed
and the damages done to us

I once broke another man's nose
with a balled up fist
but that bloody injury
is pale against the pain
knowing I've caused on others
with sounds out my mouth
for the troubles they took
in how they listened

we can make words hurt

and between us
we've talked barrels of ink
back and forth
said clouds against mountains
monologued on shared orgasm
accused our own deities
described minute to the infinite
we've spoken pointed fingers
into blunt instruments

I've seen the finger-jammed ears
of those mouthing questions
they'd rather not have answered back
and the fumbled friction
of two continents
trying to be an island

I have learned
how to make myself heard
and I have learned
how to say anything

occasionally though
when I can be quiet
I now hear the gaps
between us,

hear them just enough
to know that


I have not yet learned how to listen.







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Need to say that the whole 'two languages/understood v not listening/understanding' concept from the third & fourth stanzas is a paraphrase of something James Cameron said on the Avatar blu-ray.

Though it probably beggars mentioning as 'borrowing' ideas is that man's specialty, so not going to lose sleep over that, and I've simply used it as a springboard to coalesce some stuff that's been rattling around my head these past few days, with enough originality to justify it.

Not to dis James Cameron either, huge fan.





-Peace

















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