(no subject)
Sometimes silence is the loudest kind of noise
Like sometimes it was best when girls were girls
And boys were boys
Like back when freeze tag was a mating dance
Like back when do over meant you got another chance
Like back when anxiety was worrying if Wonder Woman would make it out alive
Like back when freedom
Was sliding backwards on a slide
Like back when success was
Jumping off a swing and
landing on your feet, then
Doing it all again
Like new shoes made you run faster
Like getting Ms. Gross again for math
Was a disaster
Like failure
Was a word we hadn’t learned to spell yet
Like promises
Were sealed and kept with pinky bets
Like a challenge
Was a double dare
Like ugly
Was a cock-eyed stare
And you liked it like
When you flipped your eyelids inside out
to impress that boy across the room
‘cause
there was no such thing as too soon
as long as you checked the right box
in that note
from across the room
the one that he
passed her
back when, “I don’t know, maybe”
was a legitimate answer
back when, “I need space.”
Meant he needed more elbow room to draw
So he got on the floor
And he colored outside the lines
Like the lines of color were on the floor
So we just existed in sandboxes, and playgrounds, and hopped scotches
And dodged balls
And everything I needed to know, I learned in a shopping mall
Like, don’t wander off on your own
Like know who you are
Like know where you came from
Like never let go of your Mother’s hand no matter what you do
Like, if you get lost
Just stand there until someone finds you
And someone will always look for you
Because someone will always miss you
And someone will always find you
And when you cry, someone will always remind you
In that quiet, quiet lullabye voice that
Sometimes silence is the loudest kind of noise.
--bassey ikpi