Poetry

Susan Melkisethian photo

By

Susan Holck

We Will Not

shut up

We learned the lexicon young

                        lie down

pull down

put down

put out

we learned       to shut up   shut down    keep it down

especially shut up

My spit sour    my swallow bitter

I know    the scrape of sand down my throat

as I try to scream

We learned      not to cry      or cry out

to shut up        no matter what

we learned                   it was our fault              always.

Susan Holck

Susan Holck is a retired physician who lived in Switzerland for 30 years before relocating to Philadelphia. After decades of scientific writing, she began writing poetry as a means to express the often unspeakable. Her poetry has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, By&By Poetry, Bluestem Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, and Cecile’s Writers Magazine.