The Jingle of the Mute

Crows fly
from the tunnel
of her tongueless mouth,
aliens in the
land of the sun

The girl with the bowl
staring through masses
of grey silence,
her secrets
lying in the folds
of her dumbness;
She is a statue
with tell-tale eyes
that hold back
restive oceans

Words are
still-born babies
empty of sound
daggers of silence
twisting in the mouth
without a tongue

With the coins
dropping into her bowl,
from the mouth
without a tongue
white pigeons holding messages
in their beaks
fly into the clouds
to the land of
the sun.

The poem was first published in Folds of Silence in 1996. Usawa has made an exception in publishing this piece because the book is now out of print and was published more than twenty six years ago.