The Day I Lost My Voice

It started slowly,
so I barely noticed.
I didn't respond
to every statement made
by those around me.
Then I began to laugh less,
and soon I had completely stopped
voicing my opinion.
I never raised my hand in class,
never spoke up
when I felt something was wrong.
So one seemed
to notice,
they just took it as a sign
that they could fill the empty space
with their idle chatter.
I began to hate the sound of talking,
wishing I could escape to somewhere
cool and dark and quiet.
My mother asked me if I was feeling
sick,
but I didn't know how to answer.
At night I begged God
to give me back my voice,
this inner silence was making me
sick.
Finally one day
I couldn't hold it in
any longer.
One comment from the
insulting boy
in my history class and I snapped.
"FUCK YOU!"
came hurtling out of my lungs,
past my vocal chords,
and into the stillness of the room.
Everyone looked around,
surprised,
until one girl whispered,
"I didn't know she could speak..."