Just Say A Word Poem by Francis Kokutse

These things do not just happen;
it takes something special
for thsese things to occur
but it has happened to me.

I have remained silent for long
waiting for someone to ask
me why it had been so
yet no one would look my way.

This silence is pregnant and waiting
for a time to break forth until you came.
Did you hear me speak of pain;
or did you hear me laugh?

I have heard voices not the ones
that play with your brains but
real ones which cannot be compared
to anything l have heard.

She spoke with a voice that was
silk if only one could touch it;
it soothes like a balm that one
could apply on an ailing back.

That is why l have come out
looking radiant as if the sun has
just open my petals with its rays.
That is why my face has beamed
as if the sun has just come out
of its hiding place to begin its daily walk.

There are things that l have hidden
in my heart and saved all
these years which would have perished
you all if l had allowed them to burst out as lava
out of a volcano on a mountain top.

Speak to me my dear, speak to me
and let me have my laughter lines increased
so that all that l have kept dark would
be whitewashed with your words in my ears.