Silent Water
Poet: Penny Blackburn
She’s never given enough time,
cannot process quickly enough
what she needs to speak.
Words pile up slowly behind
the block of her teeth, the reinforced
concrete of her lips. Tight shut.
The pool grows. It deepens,
widens till it becomes a lake.
Her mouth holds firm.
But she has read about the Vajont Dam,
knows her geological instability
will find another way.
Unsaid words will undercut the mountain.
She plans her first utterance:
Landslide. Tsunami.
Penny Blackburn lives in the North East of England. She has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including pieces online in Atrium, Riggwelter and Ink, Sweat & Tears and in print with Poetry Society News, Fragmented Voices and Fly on the Wall. She is on Twitter and Facebook as @penbee8. Her pamphlet “A Taste for Bread” was published by Wild Pressed Books in March 2021.