The City Mask

Noise
Is the mask
Of the city

We hide within
The bustle
Safely

Behind walls of loudness
Of belligerence
We cower in the silence
Of sound

The city sleeps most
When it is awake

The city screams
Loudest
When it is merely asleep

But voices emerge
When the bustle dies
Testing the darkness
With unspoken truths

I write
Sometimes
You do too
Our words never meet
But tomorrow in the street
Our cries will mask
The wisdom stark
That emerges only
In the dark