Silence (A Poem)

Noon.                             

Zinc on rooftop

Cracks by the sun’s heat.

Bus stop.

Sandwiched between strangers

Rubbing sweaty shoulders.

A knock.

A door opens.

In bed, another stranger rolls over me.

Look him in the eye

I know he will not

Beat down doors to claim me.

Night.

Phone rings,

‘I love you’, says mother at the end

Of the line.

Silence.

It took you twenty-five years to say?

Twenty-five years too late.