Why Pain Never Sings The Aria Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

Pain never sings the aria,
Yet it goes up and down,
Voiceless as always in,
One silent drone yet still,
Doing its work in making
Us feel and know we are,
The humans on whose necks,
It hangs like a noose for,
When it is tied and the
Stool on which we stand is
Pushed down. We go never to return,
To feel once again this long wait,
On the guillotine that life becomes
When this endless silence that
Bites deep, has come to stay in
A house it never built.


For when in pain we wish,
Our dog could pain for us,
For it is wiser with handling
A feeling. One whine and it
Is back doing what we said
Should not be done.

Not to say I can overburden
A dog, but I see how it connects
So easily when in pain for I
Feel it too, and then relent from
What I am doing, for I know it
Too, like pain, does not sing the
Aria but barks with the same
Voice, that only changes in a
Growl and also in a whine.

If pain could sing an aria,
I would tell it to go down,
When I want it out and tell
It to go up, and fly through
The window, when it is on
My tooth for my wisdom is
Written on my wisdom tooth
Which knows how to kill me,
When it feels like, for someone
Told it, it is wiser. My dog
is cleverer for it has never
Suffered from tooth ache.
It just knew to be laid down
With the same set, hence I
Have never heard of a canine
Dentist for I would run for my
Life, if such a one existed for
Fear of what might happen in
Case he pulls my tooth.

Change into anything and I would
Be the friend of ma, n for I see a
World where food is just bought
From the store in packets, and poured
Out with water at the side. No stew
But if this is what a feast for princes
Is, I would buy myself a chef like the
One my dog has. For I saw a prince
And princess and kids fed by a chef
Similar in size and clothes like me.
So too was the middle class just as
is my dogs chef. So never ask the
question for pain is cleverer than
you for it never sings an aria,
But just goes on and on, the same
stanza, same tone, same piano, same
everything till sleep decides me and
my dog must rest for we are sick of
being sick.