These Walls

These walls speak

Sometimes too choked with fear

To tell us about what happened here

These walls cry

Tears of dried blood from old scars

Of prejudice and pain behind those bars

These walls scream

Of  silenced voices and separated lives

Edicts determining who endures and who thrives

These walls hide

Exhumed hatred, resurrected from a bygone era

When masked men darted knives of burning terror

These walls hear

Vitriolic words, disguised in the name of the holy book

Claiming promised lands with a stolen verse as the hook

These walls see

How we cower in shadows when we make that mark

That gives our permission for self selection into the ark

These walls know

Who carries blood and dirt on their hands

When we build new walls to extend divided lands

Fresh winds of change

I heard their silence

in the winds of discontent,

echoes joining in

the growing chorus.

Hoarse coughs and splutters,

cleared blocked passages.

Throttled resonance

found strange bedfellows.

Aching moans and groans

rose in harmonious howls.

Dissenting voices

rising in the air,

leaving trails of dust

on the graves of buried bones.

New songs composed

for fresh winds of change.

I heard those voices,

recognizing yours and mine-

no longer silent

in the breaking dawn.