Come,
Sit with me a while.
Take a deep breath, lift your chin up.
Let your worries settle like tea dregs
At the bottom of the cup.
Sit with me in silence.
Let us remove ourselves from the violence
Of small talk, the madness of cacophony,
Of the need to fill every space with dissonance.
Who said silence is a void?
The lack of voice, an empty space?
Silence is so full, so vulnerable.
A step back from the race
To get a word in, to have the last say.
To agree to disagree
Before we walk away.
For once let’s put our differences aside,
Our guns down, our guards lowered,
Meet me in the middle, where we can’t hide
Behind the façade of words.
Is it intimacy that’s silent?
Or silence that’s intimate?
A bare body, a bare moment.
Let me look into your eyes.
What leaves you at a loss for words
Is more telling than what you vocalise.
Take my hand.
Sit with me.
In silence.
This poem was originally published in the 'Curated by Kopi Collective' segment of the Young Feminist Network's February Newsletter run by Everystory Sri Lanka. The theme was 'Intimacy and Relationships.'