Reasons for Silence by Mike James

after Harkaitz Cano

Because the sky is the sky, the color changes no matter 

So it is what we do, a job we won’t quit

Because all your consonants are cruel

Because all my vowels are cruel

No, really, there’s nothing to say

So the rain makes enough distraction

So the lightning is there when rain is not enough

Because words pollute the landscape, then stay

Because silence, like yelling, can become a habit

Because we need better habits

Because the cricket beneath the bed provides company

Because silence doesn’t encourage eye contact

Because there’s not a hole in the wall we can crawl into

Because the bird within my chest has given up singing

So we can each eat our hearts, focus on that

Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee and has published widely. His many poetry collections include: Red Dirt Souvenir Shop (Analog Submissions), Journeyman’s Suitcase (Luchador), Parades (Alien Buddha), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), First-Hand Accounts from Made-Up Places (Stubborn Mule), Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog), My Favorite Houseguest (FutureCycle), and Peddler’s Blues (Main Street Rag.) He served as an associate editor of The Kentucky Review and currently serves as an associate editor of Unbroken