I wanted to be the onewhose leaving let the hall fall into silence--silence, which I have, from talking, learned to love.But what, when no one loved me, have I donebut talk, talk, talk until I've said, like Peter,the thing I shouldn't say or, as tonight,until I've said exactly what I've had to say.And as I hurtled home past dark, tires wailing,I howled with every song on the radio,screamed some teen-age stranger's stupid words,shrieked somebody else's rage, somebody's lovetill I could bear my own voice, and its silence.
I yelled and screamed until I could scream no more and could only hear silence.