The Language of Silence

Perhaps Gandhi? Maybe Plato?

Possibly a Quaker founder?

I do not know who originated

the saying, “Speak only

if you can improve the

silence.”

But I know someone special

who embodies this expression.

My loved one’s furrowed brow

and outstretched hands speak

volumes amid her

silence.

Her empathy is a language

that manifests on her body

and needs no interpreter.

“I want to help you, but how?”

she tells me in her fervent

silence.

I wish I could reply to her

but I do not know the answer

much less the vocabulary

to approximate her fluency.

So I shrug and keep my

silence.