We hear nothing these days
from the ones in power
Why talk when you are a shoulder
or a vault
Why talk when you are
helmeted with numbers
Fists have many forms;
a fist knows what it can do
without the nuisance of speaking:
it grabs and smashes.
From the inside or under
words gush like toothpaste.
Language, the fist
proclaims by squeezing,
is for the weak only.
(From: Paper Boat, Margaret Atwood)