for Sylvia Plath (Morning Song)
Once upon a foreign time
we were born
our hearts ticked loud
Our mothers fussed and fretted
fearful our baby breaths would falter
heard every hungry wail
smiled as we sang our burbling songs
proud as vowels morphed into words
We were postwar precious
harbingers of harmony
fattened on free school milk
and heard by the world
Now our ticktock hearts, world-tired
Are dulled with despair
as the air burns our children’s dreams
and nothing gets done
We watch as friends lose their minds
Sing jumbled up songs
Or stand blank as statues
soundless and ghostly and lost
We with our minds intact
Watch our bodies crumbling
Our heart tics erratic as
half broken clocks
our joints ache and breaths falter
And our voices fade
Because no-one hears us now
we’re yesterday’s echoes
our vowels don’t count
because no-one’s listening
anymore