Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology

The Dream Song of the Deaf Man

Linwood Smith 167 The Dream Song of the Deaf Man Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. —Thomas Carlyle Because I’m here and you are far away and cannot visualize my restless hands moving inwards and outwards into space saying that in so many ways . . . I Love You. Because our ears weren’t made for telephones and lonely nights and endless days have led our thoughts through a dark, vast maze to teach us the definition of Separation. Because of all these things I send you this . . . Dream Song. Because each fleeting split second adds another slither of pain to my sensitive heart, while tears fall jet-propelled in a thankless tempo offering neither sympathy nor recompense for your absence. Because the dawn stars far above are deaf to human pleas and cannot understand the foreign language of my hands My state of mind made me send you this . . . Dream Song. Because my mute, aphonic lips can barely utter words of love and after my futile passionate pantomime Linwood Smith 168 of how much to me you mean, in the soundless night no answer comes from your soft, sonic hands to satisfy the dark, moonless void of the shores of space within my heart. And now, while all is the same as you and I mute as a meteor streaking through the night, I send you my love within this . . . Dream Song. ...