-- I've tried to put it into words before
searched for the right phrases
with which to tie it down
make it real enough that even you
can see and understand it all
I've struggled to say it clearly
fought to get any of it
past traitor lips that stutter
and fall silent, hiding what
I so desperately want uncovered
in dreams I should it out perfectly
exaltation, communication,
and I wake to find that still and always
you are unaware of what I try so hard
to reveal with word and deed
a gesture here and a look there
silent language that you do not speak
carefully-made speeches
that fall on deaf ears
the meanings escape you
translation eludes you
you do not comprehend anything I share,
and so
you prove once again that
I, too, am not understood --