“Do you like me?”
I asked the blue blazer.
No answer.
Silence bounced out of his books.
Silence fell off his tongue
and sat between us
and clogged my throat.
It slaughtered my trust.
It tore cigarettes out of my mouth.
We exchanged blind words,
and I did not cry,
and I did not beg,
blackness lunged in my heart,
and something that had been good,
a sort of kindly oxygen,
turned into a gas oven.
Do you like me?
How absurd!
What’s a question like that?
What’s a silence like that?
And what am I hanging around for,
riddled with what his silence said?
(Anne Sexton)
More Poetry from Anne Sexton:
Anne Sexton Poems based on Topics: Cry, Books, Silence, Trust- Hurry Up Please It's Time (Anne Sexton Poems)
- Red Riding Hood (Anne Sexton Poems)
- Angels Of The Love Affair (Anne Sexton Poems)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Anne Sexton Poems)
- Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) (Anne Sexton Poems)
- The Death Baby (Anne Sexton Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Cry Poems, Silence Poems, Books Poems, Trust PoemsBased on Keywords: riddled, clogged, bounced, blazer, lunged