You Can’t Hear My Silence

[Written in 2014.  Inspired by 2000’s “Hear Their Silence” rally.]

They told the world to hear our silence
Hear the silence of the mute autistic people
Who will never have a voice of any kind
Presumed, by them, to be all of us
Or all of us who matter
And they, of course, would speak for us
All of us
At all

I wish they could hear silence
I wish they could listen to silence until they heard it

Silence is
The gap between your words
Silence is
The void between you and me
Silence is
The place where everything begins
Silence is
The place where the universe hides
Silence is
Everything there is, and nothing
Silence is
Where I’d rather be
Silence is
Where you’ll find all of me that matters

But you’ll never hear my silence
Because you don’t know how to listen
To things you can’t hear