In response to dVerse Poets Pub:
https://wp.me/p1GTyJ-8Pp
When Sound Is Not the Center
If I could not hear,
the world would not fall silent —
it would rearrange itself.
Doors would not slam,
but shoulders would tense.
Laughter would not ring,
but eyes would crease,
mouths would widen
like sudden sunlight.
An apple would still crack
between teeth,
though I would know it
only by the firmness
against my jaw,
the sweet rush spreading
across my tongue.
I once learned to speak
with my hands.
Not because sound was gone for me,
but because it never arrived for him.
His world moved in gestures —
quick, precise, alive.
Silence was not empty there;
it was attentive.
I learned that voices
are not always carried by air.
Sometimes they live
in fingertips,
in eyebrows raised,
in the urgency of a wave.
Without hearing,
you would watch more closely.
You would feel vibration
through floors,
through ribs,
through the small shift
of someone entering a room.
Life would not be lesser.
Only different —
tuned to light
instead of noise.
— Maggie
The Afterlove Voice 💫
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