A Deaf Ear To Sirens Poem by Louis Payne

Because I never knew what to say
After you got tired of speaking,
I left after five years of marriage
And no response.

I made words - thousands -
But I never spoke of them,
Nor taught you how to bring out in me
Some proper meaning, some sense to all of this

When I was doubting the very paper we signed
As being happiness of sort.
Certainty, yes, at it's time
Was the reason for putting the rings on,

And mine; for not speaking too,
Was the reason for taking them off.

How much of love back then
I could say in my head was nonsense
Or excuse, being part of such paper and pen.
I wasn't signing myself

With heart
Or breath I drew then.
But grief out of wrong doings,
Put outside my tongue.

Sirens now; go off all around me
As I silence your name - the memory of you
Breaks in bits
Upon another's lips.

But soon it fades, the warning
Teeters out like a mist
Appearing for a short while,
Then disappearing.

They don't bother to call again, these sirens,
And there is no one reminding them.