Poems to a Silent Mailing List

by Kathryn A

(written to try to get certain people on the SentiWheel mailing list
to actually respond and send the stories they were overdue on)

Whence?

(20/10/2000)

Underneath the dust it sleepeth
Midst the parch'ed sand it creepeth
Hidden in the wind it bloweth
Like poison in the marsh it floweth.
Whence? Whence this malaise?
This plague of silence?
This place be as a desert,
with tumbleweeds rolling their aimless way.
There be naught but dust and silence.
Hast been struck dumb?
Unstick thy tongues,
unclog thy pens,
for the time hath passed for waiting.

Reminder I

(23/10/2000)

They stand at the end of the week,
like bookends upon the shelf,
those days of S,
Saturday and Sunday.
Promises I had heard,
that when these days had passed,
there would be heard,
gladly in this land,
the sound of keyboards clattering,
the silent glide
of messages over the wires,
the delightful sight
of fiction in the mailbox.
These days have passed.
We await their fulfillment.

And There Was Not

(24/10/2000)

And there was not a word
No cavalry of letters thundered their hoof-beats
Upon the metaphysical road
The sand in the hour glass,
Tumbled unheeded.
No relief, no relief
The torment of silence continued, unhindered.
Why?
We did embark upon this enterprise
Full of hope
On what grinding rock, what violent wave
Has it foundered?
What calamity has struck you all -- dumb?
This unrelenting silence
Has infected me with fear
Is my countenance like that of Medusa
Bringing death with a look?
Making grim statues of you all?
Will no one speak?

Reminder II

(29/10/2000)

My heart is a kitten
inside a sack
tied to a rock
tossed in the ocean.
Waves of silence
close over my head.
I drown.

Another Reminder

(30/10/2000)

The silence is dead
and smells of musty things
My solitary voice
echoes in the hollows of the ground
and is swallowed up.
I cast my matches
into the dark
They flare briefly
and illuminate nothing.
Somewhere
Somewhere out there
someone is sitting
with their hands over their ears.
Is the noise too much?

And here I still sit
in the dark
with matches
dying.

Is there anybody out there?