Call and Answer

Tell me why it is wedon’t lift our voices these days

And cry over what ishappening. Have you noticed

The plans are made forIraq and the ice cap is melting?

I say to myself:"Go on, cry. What’s the sense

Of being an adult andhaving no voice? Cry out!

See who will answer!This is Call and Answer!"

We will have to callespecially loud to reach

Our angels, who arehard of hearing; they are hiding

In the jugs of silencefilled during our wars.

Have we agreed to somany wars that we can’t

Escape from silence?If we don’t lift our voices, we allow

Others (who areourselves) to rob the house.

How come we’ve listenedto the great criers—Neruda,

Akhmatova, Thoreau,Frederick Douglass—and now

We’re silent assparrows in the little bushes?

Some masters say ourlife lasts only seven days.

Where are we in theweek? Is it Thursday yet?

Hurry, cry now! SoonSunday night will come.