Are you listening?

Can you hear her pain?

Can you feel his heartache?

No you can’t.

You only hear what you want to hear.

You only hear the ruffle of the leaves,

Or the singing of the bees,

And yet you can’t even hear me.

How is it you can hear the hummingbird drinking from the flower,

And the ant when it moves its antenna,

But you can’t hear the scream behind the smile,

Or hear the hours of sobbing,

See the red eyes and the blotchy cheeks

Of the person sitting next to you at church

And still you’re blind!

You are deaf!

You ask, “How are you?”

But your words mean nothing.

You move on to the next thing,

Not thinking twice of the girl who said she was, “Fine.”

And you heard “fine” but she said broken

She said abused and you didn’t listen

You were too busy listening to the whisper in the trees

And looking at the color in the breeze.

“Oh isn’t it wonderful!”

You say to the person on their knees,

With a knife in their hands,

Their life on the line,

Taking it into their hands.

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

The sound of the stars and the movement of the sun

As they scream in the back of your deafened skull

“Help Me!”

But you can’t.

You don’t hear them holding on to what little sanity they have left.

Open your eyes!

Can’t you see the world needs us to hear its cry

I am not talking about some third world country

I am talking about here

Your neighbor, your friend

They are not starving for food, but for love

They are in pain and in sorrow,

At night they hold the trigger

As they stare at the stars that scream of God’s love

And they hear the wind that whispers of God’s mercy.

But it isn’t their language

You! You speak it.

You say isn’t it wonderful!

But they are deaf too!

Don’t you see we cannot be deaf?

We must hear their pain

Read through their smiles

Because we hold the key to the buried treasure

We know the language of God

And His peace and His love

But if we cannot translate it

If we stare at the wounded and say “Get better,”

While they bleed out

It does nothing

We can listen,

We have to listen,

So let me ask you again,

Are you listening?