Oh, I Wish I Was Deaf!

• Winudi Wimalasekere, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2022

I might act like I am deaf, but, alas, I hear everything.
It all hurt, and I bruised and battered inside.
I try to hide away the pain, but, it has already cracked me, oh, I wish I was deaf!
I want to speak up but, your words have choked me up.
I want to fly high, somewhere your words cannot follow me.
But, the fear your words have conjured has chained to my legs, oh, I wish I was deaf!
They say time will heal everything, so I try hard to focus on my things,
The clock still ticks, and I patiently wait, oh, I wish I was deaf!
The weight of the pain on my shoulders gets heavier as my wailing is drowned out by your cruel words,
I don’t know! My heart or mind, what is aching? Oh, I wish I was deaf!
You may have stopped sowing your words within me.
So now, what sort of harvest do you expect to reap from me?
My eyes sting, the tears roll down, nine times out of tens, oh, I wish I was deaf!
I may smile, a smile that rots with sadness.
My cries matter, my calls of help matter, I am not a waste of matter, I matter.
In fact, a feeble personality of a verbal abuser doesn’t matter.