G55 – A Thousand Voices

A thousand voices
crying out to be saved
hears only whispers

32,000 teeth, dental histories
with no choice.

Tongueless
crying in the wilderness
animal-clad,
and they say:
“Horses, horses, horses, horses
named Betts found themselves
lumped together
inside metal boxes
and just one lousy ear.”

Chorale steeds
broken saddle words

song
in the frog pond
do I hear?

Do we need more croak louder?

A thousand voices cannot drown out
the voice
a thousand lives, and as the bell tolls
loudly
the cardinal’s message is rife with spite:

“Say nothing of value, for the voice of a crowd
is the intelligence of the leader divided by the number of people.
The only voice that has value is the one
who speaks against them.”

Are we all talking? Cursing?
Sounding out an S.O.S., soon a million voices
strong gone silent
thought collateral damage
groaning in unison
the sound of a million, louder,
mourning and everyone else.

Priscilla Brett, Gary Barwin, Andrew Topel, Brian Bartlett, Linda Steer, Rob Budde, Jamie Reid, Douglas Barbour, Bryne Helen Lewis, Penn Kemp, Kathleen Betts, Andrew Waldie Porteus, Darryl Salach, Joseph Brown, Warren Dean Fulton, Tobey C. Anderson, Catherine Heard