With My Lips Together

With my lips together
I make the loudest sound
Speaking only through my eyes
using my body to compensate for the silence
I say more with my hands
than most people say in a lifetime

I am a slow southern girl
taught the etiquette of how to be a lady
taught to smile and laugh
and keep my opinions to myself
Raised on grits and hospitality
encouraged to be a wife and a homemaker
I learned instead to write
to explode on paper
to expel my emotions through blue lines and black ink

Today with my lips together
I collect emotions and pleasures and disappointments
I build mountains and castles with their blocks
and with my black ink
I hold my tongue

Poem 1999; Published by Random House