The Poetry of Robert Josephs, Ph.D.

This Affair with Silence


Proof of an affair draws out my fading marriage to Words
As Silence claps her hands to catch my attention,
That embrace, crushes me in darkness.
Yet here in this void, I still see Words
Both glowing and false.

Pressed into isolation, this marriage should be much more.
My heart mourns any night I am alone.
Her encompassing influence more hidden --
She is here before my eyes, but I no longer know her voice.

A relationship exists, which came unbidden --
This affair with Silence should be forbidden

Several seductive Languages were once my devoted pursuit.
The Words, sedate, safe and pure, clung to me always, everywhere, but most often
Shared my bed in the morning, and provided the first heated dew on my lips.
Satisfied -- conjoined.

I have greater power as I stay devoted to expression with Words.
With Silence, no evidence of arousal, no sound, no moan; I stay bound by her influence.
I feel my own spasms of release, the vibration of baritone which is the long grunt
Forced from my own throat.

A relationship exists, which came unbidden --
This affair with Silence should be forbidden

I did not have consensual relations with Silence.
This affair may eventually improve the situation I promised to my Words.
I have sent my writing hand to become the lover of Words.
Silence will still take me, and Silence be damned.

next two entries
Blood on the Moon -- Grandfather's Pledge

Edison Squandered Love


For Aubrey

The tallest single branch
Shows the soft buds
completing a perfect alternating
ascent

The many willow branches
Arranged by Man's hand
-- a ladder of hope
Where the quick scuffle
of lucky rabbit's feet
place him in the protection
of the Lord's waiting hand.